She left and never looked back.
Kathie Lee Gifford left the “Today” show five years ago on April 5, 2019 – and hasn’t watched since.
Gifford started on the NBC morning show in 2008 with Hoda Kotb. She and Kotb worked together until April 2019 when Gifford stepped down from her position and was later replaced by Jenna Bush Hager.
“I want to know what’s going on in this world, but I don’t want it in the ‘Today’ show kind of way. Just give me the facts, folks,” Gifford told The Post.
When asked if she still keeps in contact with Kotb, Gifford replied: “I just was texting with her yesterday. I mean, she will always, always be a very dear friend of mine.”
In January, Kotb gushed about her good friend to The Post.
“By the way, Kat’s living her best life,” Kotb, 59, said at the time. “She’s in Nashville, she’s writing music, she is living her best life. She’s playing with the cutest grandkids, putting out good music, so Kat, love you.”
Gifford got her start on television while co-hosting alongside Regis Philbin on “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” from 1985 to 2000. Kelly Ripa would later take over her position.
The pair remained close until Philbin’s death at the age of 88 in July 2020.
“I stayed 15 years with Regis because I was in love with him. And I stayed 11 years with Hoda because I was in love with her and I,” Griffin told the Post. “I was great. I feel like I was one of the most blessed people in the world to be able to work with two such extraordinary people.”
Like the “Today” show, Gifford never watched the ABC program after her exit. “Live with Kelly and Mark” is currently helmed by Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos.
“You know what. I never watched Regis after I left our show. I never watched the ‘Today’ show once I left,” Gifford told The Post.
She expressed that she doesn’t miss daytime television and doesn’t believe she will ever return.
“My soul was dying a slow death in the Northeast for the last 20 years or so, watching the culture change as much as it has and not just in New York, but LA, Seattle, beautiful San Francisco, some of these huge, beautiful cities. I don’t even recognize them anymore,” Gifford said.
Gifford moved to Nashville, Tennessee, after stepping away.
“There’s a culture of kindness here in the South. It’s just extraordinary,” she told Fox News recently. “And I needed it. I needed it.”
Gifford had two kids with her late husband, Frank Gifford. Her son, Cody, 33, is a producer and her daughter Cassidy, 30, is a model and actress. Kathie Lee is also a grandmother of three.
She’s acted and produced several films since leaving daytime TV behind, notably writing and starring in “Then Came You” and Hallmark Channel’s “A Godwink Christmas” in 2018.
More recently, Kathie Lee wrote and directed the 2019 short musical, “The God Who Sees,” and currently pops up in her daughter’s new series “The Baxters,” which premiered on Prime Video on March 28.
She plays Lillian Ashford, Elizabeth Baxter’s (Roma Downey) friend who loses her son in a car accident. Cassidy, for her part, stars as Reagan Decker, the love interest of Luke Baxter (Josh Plasse).
