Kathie Lee Gifford Shares She “Wanted to Die” Amid Recovery From Multiple Surgeries

After Kathie Lee Gifford had to undergo multiple procedures, including a total hip replacement and cataract surgery, she shared insight into the toll her recovery took.

Kathie Lee Gifford is looking back at a difficult chapter.

The former Kathie Lee and Hoda cohost shares insight into the “debilitating” pain she experienced while recovering from surgeries for various ailments, including a total hip replacement, a broken arm, a broken pelvis and cataracts.

“I feel like Mr. Potato Head,” Gifford told People in an interview published June 30. “One thing falls off and then another. But you have to have a sense of humor about everything. Thank God I’ve never lost that, even in my bleakest moments.”

However, the 72-year-old—who shared that she’d required hip surgery after playing with her grandkids—said that the multiple recovery periods took a toll on her mental health.

“I couldn’t carry them, I couldn’t love on them, I couldn’t run and play with them,” she said of her five grandchildren. “All I could do was sit there and sing and write silly songs with them.”

Gifford admitted that she ultimately began withdrawing from the public amid her health problems.

“I don’t want to disappoint people,” she emphasized. “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.”

“I wanted to die a few times,” she shared. “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.”

During her challenging moments, Gifford—who shares kids Cody Gifford, 36, and Cassidy Gifford, 32, with late husband Frank Gifford—thought she might find relief in the afterlife.

However, as Gifford continues to recover, she’s felt more optimistic about the future with her grandkids than ever. As she put it, “I’m hoping, Lord willing, that I have many, many years with them.”

Kathie Lee Gifford tiết lộ cơn đau “nghiêm trọng” dẫn đến các cuộc phẫu thuật hông, cánh tay và đục thủy tinh thể: “Tôi là một người phụ nữ mạnh mẽ” (Độc quyền)

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

“I feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,” the former morning-show host tells PEOPLE

NEED TO KNOW
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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.”

For more celebs who’ve shared insight into their health journeys, keep reading.

Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia’s Ovarian Cyst

In May 2026, the BFFs podcaster underwent emergency surgery after doctors discovered a large ovarian cyst that had been twisting her organs and causing internal bleeding.

“There was a half a liter of blood in my pelvic floor,” Brianna shared in a TikTok video after the operation. “I have five incisions all over my stomach. They went in through my belly button with a camera so they could find all the blood.”

Nikki Garcia’s Breast Implant Injury

The Total Bellas alum revealed that one of her breast implants shifted after an elbow slam from fellow WWE star Piper Niven during a July 2025 wrestling match.

“It’s OK,” she told sister Bella Garcia at the time. “We’re going to get it fixed one day. I told the doctor, I go, ‘Newly divorced, so the minute the boots are hung up, I’m going to come back to you and we’re going to make these girls look real good, because these girls are going to get some action in the future and that can’t look like that.'”

Lupita Nyong’o’s Uterine Fibroids

The 12 Years a Slave star was diagnosed with uterine fibroids—non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the uterus—in 2014, the same year she won an Oscar for performance in the movie.

However, it wasn’t until 2025 when she disclosed her diagnosis, writing on Instagram that she had been “suffering in silence” for more than a decade.

“When we reach puberty, we’re taught periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman,” she shared. “We’re struggling alone with something that affects us most.”

Suki Waterhouse’s Hernia

In July 2025, the Daisy Jones & The Six star shared that she had been hospitalized due to a hernia—a gap in the muscular wall that’s commonly found in the abdomen or groin area—caused by wearing tight pants.

“‘Suki you never tweet anymore,'” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Have you ever considered I wore pants so tight 6 months ago it caused a hernia & I’ve been too scared to tell you?”

Brian Austin Green’s Perforated Appendix

The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum revealed in April 2025 that he was recovering from surgery after his appendix nearly burst.

“Last week, I started feeling some pain in my stomach,” Brian said in an Instagram video at the time. “I ended up going to the emergency room, and I had a perforated appendix. Not quite burst, but just before.”

He added, “I’m on the road to recovery. It’s not an easy process. This is my first major surgery.”

Savannah DeMelo Suffers “Medical Emergency” Mid-Game

The Racing Louisville midfielder collapsed just a few minutes into her soccer team’s Sept. 14 match against Seattle Reign at Lumen Field in Seatle.

The United States Women’s National Team player could be seen slowly sitting down on the field with a teammate by her side, per Reuters, as the referee called for trainers to check her out. She collapsed seconds later.

“Savannah received immediate on-field care from medical personnel and was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation,” the National Women’s Soccer League wrote on X later that night. “She is stable and alert.”

Adam Devine’s Long-Term Injury From Childhood Accident

Adam Devine shared that injuries he sustained after getting hit by a cement truck when he was 11 years old are still affecting him to this day.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Devine said in a 2025 episode of the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast. “I have spasms all over. For a while, [the doctors] told me I was dying—literally, within this last year.”

He noted that pain comes and goes, adding, “My body has all these things that are a little wonky and a little wrong with it.”

Jason Tartick’s Back Injury

The Bachelor Nation alum shared that he went to the hospital “crawling on all fours” due to overwhelming back pain that was aggravated during an RV trip with a friend.

“Right now, knees to my toes, it’s, like, still tingly, which is crazy,” he said on a March 2025 episode of his Trading Secrets podcast. “And to put in perspective, I don’t know, man, like not to sound douchey, but like two, three weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I was squatting probably like 295 pounds. And right now, I can’t do a squat on my foot. I can’t do a one legged squat, I fall. It’s like I had a stroke or something.”

But with the help of a back specialist and some steroids, he added, “We’re on the mend.”

Matt Kirschenheiter’s Heart Attack

Real Housewives of Orange County’s Gina Kirschenheiter shared her ex-husband Matt Kirschenheiter suffered a heart attack in March 2025, but thankfully survived the ordeal.

Tracy Morgan’s Medical Emergency

The 30 Rock star suffered a health scare at a New York Knicks basketball game in March 2025, leading to him being wheeled out of Madison Square Garden.

However, the comedian shared an update on social media the following day, noting it was a case of food poisoning and that he was on the mend.

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