HEALTHKathie Lee Gifford, 70, Hospitalized With Fractured Pelvis After Traumatic Fall
Kathie Lee Gifford fell while recovering from hip replacement surgery.
July 31 2024, Published 8:15 a.m. ET
Kathie Lee Gifford was hospitalized amid her hip replacement surgery, but she's fortunately doing OK.
As a result, the 70-year-old fractured her pelvis in two places after she fell while rushing to meet one of her friends, who was coming to pick her up at her house.
“It’s my own fault,” the TV star told People about the incident, adding that she "moved 300 books by myself" during her book signings in Nashville, Tenn. "I weakened my body."
"It didn't take much, because I was weak in that spot," she continued. "And the next thing you know, I am back in the hospital with a fractured pelvis, the front and the back. That's more painful than anything I went through with the hip. The pelvis is unbelievably painful. But anyway, here I am."
Kathie Lee Gifford shares two kids — Cassidy and Cody — with her late husband, Frank Gifford.
The "humbling experience" made Gifford stay in the hospital for a full week because she doesn't "trust" herself.
"You think you know your body and the next thing you know, your body changes when you get older," she shared. "And as much as I don't wanna think about it, I am."
"It's summer for everybody but me," Gifford added. "But it's OK. I'm going to get out to my little farm one of these days and stick my feet in my salt pool. The Lord is telling me it's time to slow down. I've been running my whole life. The Lord is telling me, 'You've planted a gazillion roses. Try smelling them.' "
The star was hospitalized amid her hip replacement surgery.
Earlier this month, the talk show host said her hip replacement surgery was "one of the most painful situations of my entire life."
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Kathie Lee Gifford lives in Nashville, Tenn., after leaving showbiz.
"It's been really hard," she admitted.
Gifford needed the surgery since she's so active, but she remains focused on her recovery and getting better.
“You climbed mountains, you made movies, you got on stages. You never took off your high heels, and you kept going and that's why you're going through what you're going through," she recalled her surgeon telling her.
“[I ask myself] would I change that? No, I was doing what God put me on this earth to do. Every year of it, I was doing what He called me to do," she noted.
Kathie Lee Gifford said getting hip replacement surgery was 'painful.'
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Gifford, who co-hosted Live With Regis and Kathie Lee with Regis Philbin from 1985 to 2000 and later joined Hoda Kotb as a co-host of Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda, relocated down south in 2019 after exiting the business.
"Part of it is just gut instinct, you know? I've been in this business 60 years now, so I've had a lot of failures and a lot of successes -- successes beyond my wildest dreams," Gifford told Entertainment Tonight in April. "You're sitting right now under four Emmys I never dreamed I'd receive. I'm grateful for them but, the older I get, the less that matters as well."
