“Today” host and Hallmark star Kathie Lee Gifford is in a season of change.
After listing her Connecticut home, Gifford has needed to prioritize her health and well-being. Amid several surgeries over the past few years, the 72-year-old shared her best tips for getting through health challenges.
Kathie Lee Gifford Admits She Wore Her Body Down
Dealing with such serious injuries can be painful, but Kathie Lee Gifford is doing her best to maintain a positive attitude. Between a hip replacement, a broken arm, and cataract surgery, the former “Today” host just keeps pressing onward.
“I feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,” the 72-year-old shared with PEOPLE this week. “But you have to have a sense of humor about everything. Thank God I’ve never lost that, even in my bleakest moments. I’m a tough broad.”
Though she loves entertaining, she admits that years of wear-and-tear in the industry have worn her down.
“A lot of it was physical,” Gifford shared. “I remember doing ‘Annie’ at Madison Square Garden for five weeks over Christmastime [in 2006], and I played Miss Hannigan. I wanted to make it big so that the little kids sitting could see it. I did pratfalls.”
“When I look back on all of these years in this industry, I go, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t fall apart years ago,'” the talk show host added. “I’ve never abused [my body], I just used it.”
Becoming a grandmother made Kathie Lee Gifford realize she needed to prioritize her well-being.
“I couldn’t carry them, I couldn’t love on them, I couldn’t run and play with them,” she remembered. “All I could do was sit there and sing and write silly songs with them.”
The Former Talk Show Host Reflects on Her Legacy
Kathie Lee Gifford still has plenty to give. But as time goes on, she’s giving more thought to her legacy. Above all else, she wants to be remembered for being herself.
“Frank said to me before he passed, ‘When I go somewhere, I know what people are expecting from me. I want to be Frank Gifford when I go out,'” Gifford remembered about her late husband. “I want to be Kathie Lee, the person they expect. I don’t want to disappoint people. But when you’re in pain, it’s so debilitating, and everything’s a grimace. I’ve had emotional pain many times in my life, but never this chronic physical pain where you literally want to go home to Jesus.”
Faith remains a vital component in the former “Today” host’s life. While speaking with PEOPLE, she wanted to emphasize that what people see is what they get.
“I think the secret to being not just alive but thriving is authenticity,” she added. “I’ve never been a different person on camera as off. I’ve never separated my spiritual life and my secular life. It’s all the same.”
When Kathie Lee Gifford eventually leaves this world, she wants others to remember her fondly.
“I want to be remembered as somebody that if they only met me one time, they think, ‘She was kind. She made me laugh,'” she told the outlet.
