Renowned television personality and author Kathie Lee Gifford has explained why she chose to forgive her husband, former NFL player Frank Gifford, following his affair in the late nineties. During an interview with entertainment publication Entertainment Tonight, the former Today show host admitted that overcoming initial feelings of shock had been challenging but refused to let those emotions fester and control her life. “I could have allowed this seed [of bitterness] to germinate,” she told ET’s Brooke Anderson. “But I don’t want to be a bitter, angry or miserable human being because you know what happens? You end up making everybody around you equally as miserable.”
Gifford chose to forgive Frank immediately after his infidelity with former flight attendant Suzen Johnson in 1997 when their children Cassidy and Cody were still very young. The timing of the scandal was particularly painful for Gifford, but she learned how to “practice forgiveness” prior to marrying Frank in 1986.
In fact, before her marriage with Paul Johnson ended in divorce six years earlier due to irreconcilable differences (according to ET), Kathie Lee walked away from that relationship having learnt a lot about letting go of painful moments. “I forgave him right then and there [when we split]. You don’t wait too long,” she said, adding: “You’re only hurting yourself if you hold on.”
Today, Kathie Lee does not regret her decision to forgive Frank as many people still approach her in the street thanking her for being open about forgiveness. She explained that holding onto resentment is toxic and can be a cancerous presence within one’s soul. “It’s important we don’t let hate live where love should,” she said, adding: “We all make our choices – he made different ones than I did, but I can still live with the decisions I have made if I truly experience deep and abiding forgiveness of that person.”
Kathie Lee’s memoir It’s Never Too Late was released in 2020. In it she detailed Frank’s affair, acknowledging how difficult this part of her life story had been to revisit but admitting that she felt its inclusion was necessary for completeness sake. The couple married nearly thirty years ago and welcomed two children together before his death from natural causes at their home in Greenwich, Connecticut, aged 84 in 2015.
In April this year Kathie Lee will release her latest book I Want to Matter: Your Life Is Too Short and Too Precious To Waste.
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