Legendary television presenter Kathie Lee Gifford has been opening up about her marriage history and whether she would genuinely consider being the first-ever Golden Bachelorette.
While promoting her new book, I Want to Matter: Your Life Is Too Short and Too Precious to Waste, Kathie sat down with Entertainment Tonight, where she discussed her marriage to the late Frank Gifford and how she learned to forgive his infidelity.
Kathie admitted the situation was heartbreaking and took a lot to overcome, but the love for their two children, Cassidy and Cody, pulled them through.
“I could have let the seed germinate, but I don’t want to be that person, that bitter, angry, unhappy, miserable human being ’cause you know what you end up doing? You end up making everybody around you every bit as miserable,” she shared. “I have always felt from my earliest youth that I had the choice every day of my life to be a blessing or a burden, and I want to be a blessing.”
In 1997, Frank, an ex-football player and sports commentator, had an affair with a former flight attendant, 11 years after he and Kathie had tied the knot.
When the news broke, Kathie said it was “very painful,” but she learned to “practice forgiveness,” noting that there is a “choice” when it comes to everything in life.
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“I’d been married before to a man who betrayed me deeply and I forgave him right away,” she explained, referencing her first marriage to Christian composer Paul Johnson. “You don’t hold on, don’t wait to forgive… you’re only hurting yourself. Immediately forgive because love cannot live where hate does.”
The former Live with Regis and Kathie Lee host said she found peace with her decision to stay with Frank, especially knowing it helped others in similar situations. She told ET that people still come up to her and tell her that they worked through their own marriage problems thanks to Kathie.
“It’s a cancer in your soul and I don’t want that,” Kathie said of holding on to resentment. “I don’t want it for me. I don’t want it for anyone I love. I want people to be blessed and we all make our choices.”
Frank died on August 9, 2015, from natural causes at the couple’s Greenwich, Connecticut, home at the age of 84.
Kathie, who is now 70 and single, was recently suggested to be the first Golden Bachelorette by her former Today co-host, Hoda Kotb.
In her interview with ET, Kathie revealed she had a “great” conversation with producers of the ABC dating reality show but admitted it would probably never work for it.
A major sticking point is that she is “too well known,” and she’d find it weird dating bachelors who know her but that she doesn’t know in return. She also isn’t sold on the concept of the show, probably even more so after the recent divorce of Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner and his golden rose recipient, Theresa Nist.
“I don’t believe that in a matter of weeks [I would] fall madly in love with somebody. For me, it would never work that way,” she stated. “I said, ‘If you guys want to do a completely different kind of show which is basically a sitcom then I’ll make fun of myself but I’m not getting in the hot tub with anyone.”