NEWSFrank Gifford Forgot 'Everything' His Son Cody Said Prior to His Death as He Suffered From Brain Disease
Dec. 1 2023, Published 2:12 p.m. ET
Kathie Lee Gifford and her son, , whom she shares with late NFL star Frank Gifford, got candid about some of the last moments of Frank's life before he died in 2015 at 84 years old.
In a new documentary called Requiem for a Running Back, which explores the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a.k.a. CTE, the brain disease that led to Frank's death, the two spoke about how the sport greatly impacted the athlete.
Frank Gifford died in 2015.
“The NFL gave my father life,” Cody, 33, said in a new interview. “But at the same time, there were dangers.”
Before Frank's passing, his family noticed something was off. During one of their nights together, Cody said, “in the span of one minute or two minutes…he had forgotten everything I had just said.”
For her part, the TV personality, 70, was upset when she first saw her late husband's brain scan.
“It was heartbreaking to look at it,” she noted. "We found damage to the hippocampus, which is the center for short-term memory…it’s the cumulative aggregate blows that you take over a lifetime.”
Kathie Lee Gifford previously shared what it was like to adjust to being alone.
As OK! previously reported, Kathie Lee previously got candid about what it was like for her be on her own after being married to Frank since 1986.
"You don't find love, love finds you," Kathie shared. "That's what I'm waiting for. I'm not going out looking for it. God will bring it to me."
The two got married in 1986.
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"I have dated. I would like to find somebody, I'm a people person. I am dating a very sweet guy. I told him how blessed I am," Kathie continued. "I feel very cozy in there and he asked if you ever get lonely and I said 'every day.'"
She also explained that it's normal to be lonely, as it is a "natural progression in life when your parents have passed on, your husband has passed on, your children have moved away and you're alone in the big house that once was teaming with activity and now the silence is deafening."
The TV star is dating Richard Spitz.
"And it doesn't matter how much music you put on, you can't escape the fact that you are there by yourself," Kathie Lee, who also shares daughter Cassidy with Frank, added. "Frank had been very sick for several years before he passed and when Frank did see Jesus and went straight to heaven, I had such closure."
Meanwhile, Kathie Lee has been dating Richard Spitz.
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People spoke to Kathie Lee and Cody.
