Kathie Lee Gifford Has A Unique Requirement When it Comes To Dating
Former Today Show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford is enjoying life in her new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Though she misses close pal and former co-host Hoda Kotb, the television personality has a full plate with producing, directing, and songwriting projects.
After her husband Frank’s death in 2015, Gifford knew she had to make a move due to growing loneliness. Though she hasn’t dated much since becoming a widow, the NBC alum is open to love yet has a few conditions on whom she’ll date.
‘Today’ star moved due to ‘crippling loneliness’
With Gifford’s two children, Cody and Cassidy, grown and out of the house, the Connecticut home she once shared with her NFL Hall of Fame husband was devastatingly empty. When her mother passed away soon after Frank’s death, Gifford knew she had to make a change.
“If you’re not careful, what you’ve lost in life can define you. It’s so much healthier to be defined by what you still have,” she said in 2019, according to Today.com. “I found myself dealing with crippling loneliness. I had to make a move to someplace physically, and I had to make emotional moves and spiritual moves. You gotta make new memories or the old ones are going to kill you.”
After hosting her final show of Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda in April 2019, Gifford became an official Nashville resident and is relishing her new environment.
“Here’s the bad news — I’m a widow, an orphan, and an empty nester,” she shared. “The good news is, I have the freedom of a widow, an orphan and an empty nester. I’ve got all the time to spend my days writing. I’m having the life I could’ve only ever dreamed of.”
Kathie Lee Gifford dishes about a date
Gifford paid a visit to the Today set and spoke with Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager about her new endeavors. The co-hosts brought up some pics of Gifford with an unnamed gentleman that made headlines.
“I went out on a couple of dates,” Gifford revealed. “I went out with friends to a club to hear my favorite band down there, The Smoking Section… so this sweet guy asked me to dance and I said ‘ok,’ then he disappeared into the crowd, and I said ‘ok’… then we just went out a couple of times. It was fun.”
The former Today star shared that nothing materialized from the get-togethers and commented on reentering the dating world.
“I hadn’t been on a date in 33 years,” Gifford explained. “It’s surreal because the world has changed so much. He was a gentleman so it was fine, it was fun, but then I got so busy and we’re just from different worlds.”
Kathie Lee Gifford’s checklist
In an interview with AARP, Gifford described another dating encounter she experienced that never got off the ground.
“A very nice gentleman who was just totally wrong for me, and I was totally wrong for him,” Gifford recalled in April 2019. “He didn’t share my faith, and I could never spend my life with someone who didn’t share my faith.”
A devout Christian, Gifford sees her faith as her foundation in life. “My faith is not what I do for an hour on Sunday mornings; my faith is who I am,” she explains. “You know, the Bible talks about ‘In Him we live and move and have our being.’ That means every nanosecond of our life.”
In a previous television interview, the former NBC co-host revealed that her dating criteria also included “anyone with their own teeth.” When talking to AARP, she made a slight modification to that rule.
“Let’s change that to ‘anyone with teeth, and doesn’t have to be their own.’”
