Kathie Lee Gifford Reveals 'Debilitating' Pain Led to Hip, Arm and Cataract Surgeries: 'I'm a Tough Broad' (Exclusive)

Charlotte Triggs, Brianne TracyTue, June 30, 2026 at 12:20 PM UTC

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Kathie Lee Gifford at her home outside of Nashville on June 9Credit: John Shearer -

Kathie Lee Gifford underwent multiple surgeries after injuries, including a hip replacement and cataract surgery, over the past year

Chronic pain left her unable to play with her five grandchildren

Now on the mend, she enjoys running and playing with her grandchildren again

Kathie Lee Gifford has had a rough year.

She had a total hip replacement just over a year ago followed by another surgery after she was too active trying to play with her grandchildren and fractured it again. She broke her arm when she rolled over on it wrong one night, then a spill on uneven pavement led to another broken bone. When she realized her depth perception was off, she got cataract surgery on her eyes.

“I feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,” Gifford, 72, says in this week's PEOPLE cover story, on newsstands Friday. “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.”

Kathie Lee Gifford at her home outside of Nashville on June 9Credit: John Shearer

Indeed, throughout the entire day — a video interview at her primary residence, followed by a photo shoot at her Provençal-style country retreat a little farther outside of Nashville — she never stops cracking good-natured jokes. “I want to be remembered as somebody that if they only met me one time, they think, ‘She was kind. She made me laugh.’ ”

Since her first big break on Name That Tune in 1977, Gifford says there's been "so many mountains I've climbed" as she went "from one project to the next" and put wear and tear on her body.

"A lot of it was physical," she says. "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,'" she continues. "I've never abused [my body], I just used it."

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In the past three years, she welcomed five grandchildren: her son Cody's kids Frank, 4, Ford, 2, and Faith, 10 months, and her daughter Cassidy's kids Finn, 3, and Rosie, 13 months. She struggled with not being able to interact with them in the way she wanted because of her physical pain.

"I couldn't carry them, I couldn't love on them, I couldn't run and play with them," she says. "All I could do was sit there and sing and write silly songs with them."

Kathie Lee Gifford on the cover of PEOPLECredit: John Shearer

Her pain also caused her to stop going out as much, just like her late husband, NFL and broadcasting legend Frank Gifford, did in the time before he died at age 84 in 2015.

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"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,'" she recalls. "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."

In her hardest moments, Gifford remembers praying, "Lord, if this is all you have left for me, I want to go home."

"I wanted to die a few times," she says. "I wasn't going to hurt myself. I wasn't going to kill myself. I just didn't want to be here — as blessed as I am."

Kathie Lee Gifford at her home outside of Nashville on June 9Credit: John Shearer

On the mend thanks to her surgeries, six-days-a-week physical therapy and stem cell therapy, Gifford is now happy to report she runs "all over the place" with her grandkids.

"They're all fantastic," she says. "I'm hoping, Lord willing, that I have many, many years with them."

In her professional life, she recently filmed an upcoming documentary about herself, produced by her longtime friend Kris Jenner, and has written more than a dozen books, including her newest release, Nero and Paul, which is part of the Ancient Evil, Living Hope, series.

She's also been thinking about her legacy lately. After spending the past seven years living in Tennessee and writing religious nonfiction, she’s selling the Connecticut home where she and Gifford raised Cody and Cassidy. It’s listed for an astonishing $100 million. “It took us so long to decide that we were ready,” she says.

Deeply faithful, Gifford says she’s always stayed true to herself. “I think the secret to being not just alive but thriving is authenticity,” she says. “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.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.

For more from Kathie Lee Gifford, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday.

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