What happened to former Today co-host Kathie Lee Gifford?

Kathie Lee Gifford was once a morning show staple and spent her days co-hosting Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee alongside the late Regis Philbin. Now that she’s been out of the talk show game for a while, fans are still curious about her life, from her relationship status to some recent surprising news. Fans will always want to hear about how Gifford is doing, and as it turns out, she has shared a lot lately…

What happened to Kathie Lee Gifford and is she okay?

People reported that Gifford was in the hospital for more than seven days this summer because of a fractured pelvis. This was even worse because she had just had her hip replaced. (We’re thinking about those memes that say “if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”)

Gifford is 70 years old and honestly looks amazing, but she admitted that she has been reflecting on her age thanks to her medical problem. She said, “your body changes when you get older” and added, “And as much as I don’t wanna think about it, I am.” She explained that her pelvis issue was “more painful than anything I went through with the hip,” which is saying something, because a hip replacement is no joke.

As we know from watching her host Live! and Today, Gifford is open with her fans, and she shared the story of her terrible fall. She was signing copies of her new book, Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior in Nashville and moved 300 of them on her own. The next day, her friend came over, and she opened the front door and unfortunately fell. She realized that carrying all those books was too intense for her since she’d just had her hip replaced.

Gifford’s health scare was much more serious than that time Hoda Kotb had something strange happen to her eye while hosting Today. But Gifford is fine now (phew).

This wasn’t the only time that Gifford has fallen, although at least she was in the privacy of her own home this time. In March 2023, Page Six reported that Giffin and Richard Spitz, whom she was dating at the time, took a group fitness class and headed home. She then fell on the walk back. There are some awkward photos of the incident, but Spitz was a gentleman and helped her get back up.

While we sympathize with Gifford’s pelvis pain because it sounds terrible, her post-Today years have otherwise been awesome. According to Page Six, Hoda Kotb said on Today with Hoda and Jenna in January 2024 that Gifford was with “playing the cutest grandkids” and “Kat’s living her best life, she’s in Nashville, she’s writing music.” Gifford’s fall and recovery are just reminders that we all experience challenges in life, whether we’re famous talk show hosts or not.