{"id":249332,"date":"2026-06-30T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/kathie-lee-gifford-reflects-on-grueling-year-of-surgeries-amid-pain-i-wanted-to-die-a-few-times\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:03:10","slug":"kathie-lee-gifford-reflects-on-grueling-year-of-surgeries-amid-pain-i-wanted-to-die-a-few-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/kathie-lee-gifford-reflects-on-grueling-year-of-surgeries-amid-pain-i-wanted-to-die-a-few-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathie Lee Gifford Reflects on Grueling Year of Surgeries Amid Pain: &#8216;I Wanted to Die a Few Times&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-2238646\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- Franchise logo or primary category --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- post title --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/post title --><\/p>\n<p><!-- subheader --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<!-- post thumbnail --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"tpd-post-thumbnail-container caption_belowImage credit_onImage\"><figcaption><span class=\"credit-text\">Credit: Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- \/post thumbnail --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/kathie-lee-gifford\/\" class=\"celebrity-tag-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"celebrity-tag-strong\">Kathie Lee Gifford<\/strong><\/a> is opening up about her health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 72-year-old former <em>Today <\/em>host got candid in a new interview about various surgeries she\u2019s had in the past year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,\u201d she told <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/kathie-lee-gifford-reveals-debilitating-pain-led-to-hip-arm-and-cataract-surgeries-exclusive-12008874\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>People.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kathie Lee <\/strong>said that after getting a total hip replacement a little over a year ago, she had to get another surgery on her hip after fracturing it while playing with her grandkids. She then broke her arm rolling over on it one night. She also fell on uneven pavement, resulting in another broken bone, followed by cataract surgery for her eyes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Exclusive: Kathie Lee Gifford Graces the Cover of People\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hx90ULE4QQc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou have to have a sense of humor about everything. Thank God I\u2019ve never lost that, even in my bleakest moments. I\u2019m a tough broad,\u201d <strong>Kathie Lee <\/strong>summed up her past year, noting that she struggled with interacting with her young grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI couldn\u2019t carry them, I couldn\u2019t love on them, I couldn\u2019t run and play with them. All I could do was sit there and sing and write silly songs with them,\u201d she reflected, noting that like her late husband <strong>Frank Gifford<\/strong>, she stopped going out as much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<strong>Frank<\/strong> said to me before he passed, \u2018When I go somewhere, I know what people are expecting from me. I want to be <strong>Frank Gifford <\/strong>when I go out. I want to be<strong> Kathie Lee<\/strong>, the person they expect. I don\u2019t want to disappoint people. But when you\u2019re in pain, it\u2019s so debilitating, and everything\u2019s a grimace. I\u2019ve had emotional pain many times in my life, but never this chronic physical pain where you literally want to go home to Jesus,\u201d <strong>Kathie Lee<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI wanted to die a few times. I wasn\u2019t going to hurt myself. I wasn\u2019t going to kill myself. I just didn\u2019t want to be here \u2014 as blessed as I am,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the surgeries, physical therapy and stem cell therapy, she can now run with her grandkids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to be remembered as somebody that if they only met me one time, they think, \u2018She was kind. She made me laugh,&#8217;\u201d she added, reflecting on her legacy and \u201cso many mountains I\u2019ve climbed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more from <strong>Kathie Lee Gifford<\/strong>, head to <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/kathie-lee-gifford-reveals-debilitating-pain-led-to-hip-arm-and-cataract-surgeries-exclusive-12008874\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">People.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The morning show host also landed in some controversy after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/2026\/03\/11\/kathie-lee-gifford-questions-the-lgbtq-acronyms-letters-theyve-really-got-to-stop-with-that\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">questioning the LGBTQ+ acronym.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"categories single-categories\">Posted To:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/tags\/kathie-lee-gifford\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kathie Lee Gifford<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justjared.com\/2026\/06\/30\/kathie-lee-gifford-reflects-on-grueling-year-of-surgeries-amid-pain-i-wanted-to-die-a-few-times\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Getty Kathie Lee Gifford is opening up about her health. The 72-year-old former Today host got candid in a new interview about various surgeries she\u2019s had in the past year. \u201cI feel like Mr. Potato Head! One thing falls off and then another,\u201d she told People. Kathie Lee said that after getting a total [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}