Alexandria Wyckoff
Kathie Lee Gifford is pulling back the blinds on aging, and how growing older isn’t always “golden.”
Kathie Lee Gifford & Aging
Gifford opened up to Yahoo on March 26th about the changes in her life as she’s gotten older. Her final thoughts?
“It just gets harder. Everything gets harder. The golden years? It’s a lie.”
She added, “You can do all kinds of stuff to your body, but it knows how old you are and where you’ve been and what you did when you went there. No keeping secrets from it.”
Past Surgeries
Kathie Lee Gifford has undergone several surgeries in recent years. In 2024, she had hip replacement surgery, telling People at the time that recuperating was “one of the most painful situations of my entire life.”
While it was painful, Gifford wasn’t deterred and wanted to get back to her normal routines.
“I walked, I climbed, I walked, and my doctor said, ‘Kathie, no. You have got to realize that this is serious,'” she said. “And I was off my walker in two days. I was off all my medications in three days, and then I did too much. I just did too much because that’s who I am.”
Last year, Gifford underwent four operations. One of the operations was due to two broken bones from a fall on an uneven sidewalk.
Keeping Her Mind Sharp
While her body may be betraying her in some ways, Kathie Lee Gifford keeps her mind sharp and wants to keep it that way for many more years.
For instance, instead of asking Siri or Google to look up a fact for her, Gifford runs through the alphabet until the answer appears in her mind. Memorization is a huge piece in getting the gears turning.
Gifford claimed, “It makes my mind work. It keeps it sharp.”
Keeping her mind healthy is especially important with her loved one’s history. Her late husband was posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), while her father had Lewy body dementia.
Finding Happiness
While Kathie Lee Gifford may not like all the parts of aging, there are plenty of bright moments in her life right now.
One of them is grandchildren. Gifford shared with Yahoo, “Five grandchildren in three years. It’s like precious pandemonium.”
Thankfully, Gifford has homes near both of her children, so she can enjoy lots of time with the newest generation. She continued, “Anytime a child is born is an amazing blessing. I just rejoice. It’s like one of the final miracles left in this world, because it’s such a dark place too often.”
Along with grandchildren, Kathie Lee Gifford has found clarity about what matters. She often donates or invests her money in projects she believes in to help those in need.
“I’ve made tons of money in my career, which I never dreamed I’d be able to have,” she said. “I’ve given away, I would say, more than half of it, and been grateful to do it.”
Much of the money comes from her faith-based projects, like the novel series Nero & Paul. Profits from those projects go to the Rock, the Road & the Rabbi Foundation.
When thinking about her life as it is now, Gifford commented, “Some people love their misery. I’m not one of them. I want the joy. I want the zoe.”