Religion and household are two matters that gentle up Kathie Lee Gifford.
“5 grandchildren in three years,” the four-time Emmy-winning TV host tells Yahoo. “It is like treasured pandemonium.”
Her daughter, Cassidy, lives within the Nashville space and has two kids. Son Cody lives in Connecticut and has three. Fortunately, Gifford has properties close to each, so she will be able to log lots of “Bubbe” time. Gifford goes by the Yiddish phrase for grandmother — although one granddaughter has shortened it to easily “Bob,” which makes her snort.
“Anytime a toddler is born is an incredible blessing. I simply rejoice,” says the previous host of Right now With Kathie Lee and Hoda and Reside With Regis and Kathie Lee. “It is like one of many remaining miracles left on this world, as a result of it is such a darkish place too typically.”
The identical sense of awe carries into her newest inventive work: the historic thriller Nero & Paul, How the Gospel of Grace Defeated the Ruler of Rome, out now. The e book is the second within the Historic Evil, Residing Hope trilogy she’s writing with coauthor Bryan M. Litfin.
The e book juxtaposes the contrasting figures of Nero, the Roman emperor who spent his life clawing for energy and clinging to it, and Paul, who modified his path, surrendering to religion and function as an apostle.
Gifford, who’s additionally producing a film about Paul along with her son, research rabbinically and says she has constructed a relationship with God that has nothing to do with “faith.”
“I am the least non secular individual you have talked to,” she says. “I do not like faith. It places us in chains. Relationship with the residing God releases the chains to be who we really, authentically are in him.”
That conviction is what she’s leaned on in her hardest moments, together with the dying of her husband, NFL legend Frank Gifford, in 2015.
“When I discovered my husband lifeless on the ground, I might cry tears of absolute pleasure as a result of I knew the place he went and who he was with,” she says. “[I] do not concern dying. The best day in my life would be the day that I’m going residence to Jesus. The perfect day — and I’ve had some nice ones.”
Prayer is a connector she’s used along with her pal and former Right now colleague Savannah Guthrie, whose mom, Nancy, was kidnapped on Feb. 1.
“I in all probability heard the information quite a bit earlier than most individuals, and I instantly began praying for Savannah,” she says. “[Later], I simply began texting her: ‘Love you. Praying for you,’” she says. “Simply that message time and again.”
It was a couple of month earlier than she bought a reply.
“She mentioned, ‘Love you, pal,’” Gifford says. “I used to be simply joyful to listen to her reply. I didn’t want it, but it surely mentioned one thing to me about how she is, possibly, in her therapeutic.”
The final time I spoke with Gifford, she had simply had hip alternative surgical procedure, in 2024, which was a problem. Now 72, she updates that she’s had 4 operations within the final yr alone.
“It simply will get more durable. Every thing will get more durable,” she says of getting older. “The golden years? It is a lie.”
One surgical procedure got here after Gifford fell on an uneven sidewalk following a morning train class. She shrugged it off — “My lip cracked. I did not break a tooth. I’m good” — till an X‑ray revealed two damaged bones.
“You are able to do every kind of stuff to your physique, but it surely is aware of how outdated you might be and the place you have been and what you probably did if you went there,” she says. “No holding secrets and techniques from it.”
However her thoughts is sharp, whether or not she’s going deep on biblical matters or recounting the origin story of how wine began flowing on Right now’s fourth hour.
She says she’s decided to maintain it that manner. As a substitute of asking Siri or Google to lookup a reality, she runs by way of the alphabet till the reply comes. She additionally credit memorization for reinforcing her mind.
“It makes my thoughts work,” she says. “It retains it sharp.”
Her late husband was posthumously recognized with power traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and her father had Lewy physique dementia, so she’s aware of hurdles others face.
Gifford herself is unstoppable. She’s engaged on her subsequent e book and waiting for an upcoming documentary about her life.
If age has gifted her something, Gifford says it’s readability about what issues. She’s been letting go of possessions and investing in issues she believes in.
“I’ve made tons of cash in my profession, which I by no means dreamed I would have the ability to have,” she says. “I’ve given away, I’d say, greater than half of it, and been grateful to do it.”
Earnings from her religion‑based mostly tasks, like Nero & Paul, go to the Rock, the Street & the Rabbi Basis.
She laughs that Frank used to get mad at how a lot she gave. “He stopped doing that when he realized that when I gave one thing, I bought it again a hundredfold,” she says. “I mentioned, ‘God loves a beneficiant soul.’ … You possibly can by no means out‑give God. I would moderately die giving one thing away than holding it unto myself and never with the ability to take it with me anyway.”
Right now, Cody helps run the companies whereas Gifford focuses on the work she feels known as to do.
“Some folks love their distress,” she says. “I am not one in all them. I need the enjoyment. I need the zoe.”
