Kathie Lee Gifford on why she forgave Frank after his infidelity

In the new book “It’s Never Too Late: Make the Next Act of Your Life the Best Act of Your Life”, Kathie Lee Gifford reflects on touchstone moments in her life that have brought her to where she is now – living her dreams and discovering new ones at 67.

Of course, not all of the moments she looks back on were good. But she can see how even the worst of them have shaped the lives of her and her family, including the public scandal and personal pain that accompanied her late husband’s infidelity.

“It’s Never Too Late” by Kathie Lee Gifford

In an interview with “ET”, Kathie Lee said she “did not want” to repeat Frank Gifford’s 1997 affair and said they had “fought long after”.

But she couldn’t let such a transforming event out of her memories.

“He knew that I would never be exactly like me again before I knew the truth about what he had done,” she told “ET”.

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It’s a topic that she has brought up here TODAY in the past.

“It takes a lifetime to build this kind of friendship and story together and create trust,” she once said of her former co-host, Hoda Kotb. “And it takes a stupid decision to destroy it.”

However, Kathie Lee and Frank, who married in 1986, stayed together until his death in 2015.

“Sometimes you run out of time to rebuild it,” she said to Hoda. “I was grateful that we could.”

It wasn’t easy though.

As she writes in her book after learning of the affair, “(Frank) was no longer my hero.” It took the words of a therapist to help her find a way to forgive and move forward.

Kathie Lee Gifford and Frank Gifford were spotted with their children Cody and Cassidy in 2005.FilmMagic

“He said words that are now emblazoned on my heart: ‘Kathie, if you cannot forgive your husband, forgive the father of your children,'” she recalled. “It was a revealing moment. It took my eyes from me and turned them directly to my children, who were not even aware of their father’s infidelity. My children’s father was a wonderful, loving, gentle, compassionate, generous and sweet one Man He was easy to forgive because I knew his heart. “

In her chat with “ET”, Kathie Lee explained how this perspective changed everything for her and her now grown-up children, Cody and Cassidy.

“We stayed together, we saved our marriage, we – by God’s grace – saved our children,” she said. “I knew my children would be very, very different people if we broke up at that time.”

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