Kathie Lee Gifford had a long and distinguished career. As a broadcaster on The Morning Show with her now-late co-anchor Regis Philbin, the French native became a household figure. She was also involved in a number of other media initiatives and penned children’s books.
Gifford’s personal life, in addition to her professional activity, drew public interest. She’s been married twice, the second time to Frank Gifford, who died in 2015 after nearly 30 years of marriage.
Gifford, 68, was previously married to musician and Christian music publisher Paul Johnson. Kathie married when she was 22, but their marriage was a nightmare. Gifford was left sobbing on her wedding night.
So, what actually occurred? Here is all you need to know about Kathie Lee Gifford’s two marriages—and who she is now seeing.
Kathie Lee Gifford was born in Paris, France, on August 16, 1953. During weekends, her father worked as an American military officer and jazz musician, while her mother was a former naval secretary. She had switched careers and was now a radio singer.
Kathie and her siblings moved around since their father was stationed in different European countries. They were raised in France before returning to the United States in 1957 and settling in Bowie, Maryland.
Katie Lee Gifford has always been deeply religious. Kathie grew up in a Jewish household since one of her grandmothers was Jewish. She did, however, attend Methodist Sunday school in Bowie, and at the age of 12, she became a Christian after viewing the Christian film The Restless Ones.
“For most of my upbringing, my family revered God in general but did not know him personally.” On my father’s side, we were Jewish, and on my mother’s side, we were Christians. “Yet our beliefs, and indeed our entire lives, began to alter one night when I was 12,” she told Christianity Today.
“I returned home to find my mother and sister weeping in front of the television in our living room. President Kennedy had been slain a few years before, so I strolled in wondering, “What apocalyptic thing has happened this time?” My mother and sister, however, had been watching one of Billy Graham’s television crusades. That night, they both surrendered to Christ.
Kathie Lee Gifford has always aspired to be an actress and singer. She believed God was with her “at every twist and turn,” and at the age of 17, Gifford won her state Junior Miss Pageant.
She traveled to Alabama to compete for her state of Maryland in the national competition, and a chance meeting changed the trajectory of her life.
Gifford met Anita Bryant in Mobile, Alabama. Bryant is a Christian singer and co-host of the beauty pageant.She saw Kathie Lee’s talent as a vocalist and invited her to live with Anita and her husband in Florida. Gifford accepted their invitation, and in addition to singing at Southern Baptist churches and doing secretarial work for Anita, she also babysat their kid.
“Anita offered me to reside in Miami with her and her family,” Gifford recounted. “She and her husband wanted to pour everything they knew into someone, and they thought that after ten years of looking, I was the one.”
She did, however, mention that while she was with Anita, her voice began to alter.
“My voice began to sound like Anita’s,” Gifford continued. “Her voice is instantly recognized, and I’d hear myself singing and think, ‘That sounds exactly like her!'”
After a year, Anita decided to leave, understanding that she and her husband’s marriage was only a front for their jobs. Anita had assisted her in obtaining a full scholarship at the evangelical Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the time. She also performed gospel with Roberts’ Global Action Singers.
Gifford sang on television for the first time in 1972, on Oral Roberts’ television show in Burbank, California, and thereafter traveled over the southern United States, attending revival meetings.
But Kathie Lee Gifford didn’t like Oral Roberts’ school. She soon became convinced that he was manipulating her and others and chose to quit the institution during her junior year.
Yet her goal was not to return home but to make it in Hollywood. After scrambling for work as an extra and vocalist on the television show I Believe in Miracle, she met her first husband, Paul Johnson, a year later. He led her Bible study group.
Kathie Lee and Paul were married in 1976. Gifford was still a virgin, referring to herself as “the Last Hollywood Virgin.” Yet, when she married at 22, she was ready to alter that, and her initial connection to Paul was a big part of that.
Gifford believed Paul was “the greatest Christian catch.” But on their wedding night in Acapulco, Mexico, she discovered that she had been incorrect the entire time.
“That was YABBA-DABBA-DOO!” Every constraint I’d ever had vanished. It was time for lights and romance—time to swing from the chandeliers and boogie. “But we couldn’t seem to relax with one another,” Kathie Lee Gifford wrote in People Magazine in 1992.
The great vocalist cried her eyes out the whole wedding night. She realized it was a mistake at that time. Paul and Kathie Lee divorced in 1983, seven years after they married.
“[The wedding] was a tremendous disappointment for me, as I’m sure it was for Paul. We all want to love and be loved, and it’s sad when it doesn’t happen.”
One of the hardest things for her to accept was that “we had preserved ourselves for so long and expected it to be so good because we had done it correctly.”
The married couple couldn’t make things work, and they never found a comfortable s*xual connection.
“It wasn’t passionate or successful, but it was courteous,” she continued.
Kathie Lee Gifford talked about her marriage to Paul Johnson in more detail in 2000. She said that he was the one who left her.
“I wouldn’t call him a spouse at all.” “That was terrible,” she told The Globe and Mail. “I married because I felt I was in love, and he thought the same.” There was a stage, and it occurred. It’s all over. May God bless him. I’m just relieved I don’t have to go through that again.
She co-hosted The Morning Show with Regis Philbin from 1985 to 2000. After that, the show was called Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. But in 2018, she opted to quit the show to host the fourth hour of NBC’s Today.
She indicated that one of the primary reasons she left was the death of her beloved second husband, Frank Gifford, in 2015.
“Once my husband died, you knew you were running out of time,” Gifford said in a statement.
In 2020, Kathie Lee faced another heartbreaking loss when her longtime colleague Regis Philbin died at the age of 88. Gifford rushed to Instagram to pay tribute to her former colleague and friend.
“There are no words to completely explain my feelings for my dear buddy, Regis. “I adored him, and every day with him was a blessing,” she wrote. “We spent 15 years together bantering, fighting, and laughing ourselves silly—a tradition and relationship that we have maintained to this day.”
“No one has ever been like him.” and there will never be.”
Gifford stepped away from the spotlight four years after her husband, Frank, died in 2015. Unlike her previous marriage, her marriage to Frank was a real love story, with the pair wedded for 29 years.
Kathie Lee Gifford met Frank while filming a feature for Good Morning America, and the two fell in love. The pair married in 1986. Cody was born in 1990, and Cassidy was born in 1993.
“Our almost 30-year marriage was a true love affair and marriage in every meaning of the word, thus God redeemed it,” Gifford explained.
Nevertheless, the pair hit a rough patch in 1997 when Frank, a former football player, cheated on Kathie Lee.
While describing it as “extremely painful,” the television anchor stated that she chose to forgive him despite the possibility of divorce.
“We were able to reverse the situation.” “Forgiving my spouse was the proper thing to do for my life.” “And then focus on forgetting,” stated Gifford.
Tragic events occurred in 2015. For years, Frank had struggled with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain illness that may affect athletes as a result of repetitive hits to the head. He died only weeks before his 85th birthday.
“He was a really good, lovely, sweet, generous man,” Kathie Lee remarked of her late husband, Frank. “There were so many qualities about him that I appreciated as my friend, and I continued to value them in him as my spouse and the father of my children.” “However, the person you loved the most in your life is also the person who can hurt you the most.”
Kathie has been residing outside of Franklin, Tennessee, since 2018. Kathie has lots to do, even if she is no longer a TV presenter after leaving NBC’s Today in 2020.
Kathie is feeling better than ever after spending time with friends and continuing to work.
“Do you know what I mean?” I feel strong, healthy, and restored on the inside. “I actually feel thirsty,” Gifford stated in late September.
She had the incredible chance to see both of her children’s weddings in the span of three months. Kathie Lee Gifford’s daughter Cassidy, 27, married Wierda, while her son Cody, 30, married Erika.
Even though her late husband, Frank Gifford, was not present, Kathie claims his spirit was.
“We simply felt their father beaming, and I was weeping.”
Gifford was not in the mood to date after the death of her loving husband, Frank. In November 2019, however, she claimed that she had gone on multiple dates. Then, one night, while she was out with some friends at a club to see a band perform, one man grabbed her eye.
“I went to hear them, and this kind guy invited me to dance, so I said, “Fine.” “He just vanished into the crowd,” Kathie Lee Gifford remembered. “You know, a couple of weeks later, the same band—Tim Akers & the Smoking Section—so we danced again. And then we simply went out a couple of times. “That was exciting since I hadn’t had a date in 33 years.”
We have no idea if that man was Randy Cronk. But, as of now, Kathie Lee Gronk has found love again in Randy.
During an appearance on the Today Show in April last year, she described her lover as “lovely, pleasant, and healthy.”
“I’ve simply discovered someone who is a lot of pleasure to be around,” Kathie Lee Gifford continued. “He is the brightest person I’ve ever met, and he’s also hilarious.”
Randy Cronk, who is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, works as an insurance agent, according to The Daily Mail. RMC Insurance Group LLC’s president and insurance broker According to the website, Frank currently resides in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Kathie Lee Gifford has been looking stunning for years, and she is certainly aging gracefully. The now-68-year-old was caught sans makeup in New York City, and we can’t stop smiling when we see her!
Kathie Lee’s net worth is estimated to be over $60 million as of today.
We are overjoyed that Kathie Lee Gifford has rediscovered genuine love. If you are happy for her, please share this story with your friends and family on Facebook!