Who Is Kathie Lee Gifford Dating?

The Short Answer

Who is Kathie Lee Gifford dating? — the verified answer, based on reputable media reporting and public records, is covered in detail below. Kathie Lee Gifford is a public figure whose relationships have been documented by entertainment media over the course of a career in the public eye.

What follows is a fact-checked timeline: who Kathie Lee Gifford has been linked with, what is confirmed versus rumored, and where things stand now. Every claim is sourced — speculation is labeled as speculation.

Who Is Kathie Lee Gifford?

Kathryn Lee Gifford (née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress, and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. Gifford is also known for her 11-year run with Hoda Kotb, on the fourth hour of NBC's Today show (2008–2019). She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of the Today team.

Gifford's first television role was as Tom Kennedy's singer/sidekick on the syndicated version of Name That Tune in the 1977–1978 season. She also occasionally appeared on the first three hours of Today and was a contributing NBC News correspondent.

Gifford married Paul Johnson, a composer, arranger, producer and publisher of Christian music, in 1976, and they divorced in 1982. She is the widow of sportscaster and former NFL player Frank Gifford, whom she married in 1986. Gifford has released studio music albums and several books, with her music and writings featuring spiritual and uplifting themes.

Early life and beginnings

Gifford was born Kathryn Lee Epstein in Paris, France, to American parents, Joan (born Cuttell; January 20, 1930 – September 12, 2017), a singer, and Aaron Epstein (March 19, 1924 – November 19, 2002), a musician and former US Navy Chief Petty Officer. Aaron Epstein was stationed with his family in France at the time of Gifford's birth. Gifford grew up in Bowie, Maryland, and attended Bowie High School.

Gifford's paternal grandfather was a Russian Jew from Saint Petersburg and her paternal grandmother had Native American ancestry. Her mother, a relative of writer Rudyard Kipling, was of French Canadian, German and English descent.

After seeing the Billy Graham-produced film The Restless Ones at age 12, Gifford became a born-again Christian. She told interviewer Larry King, "I was raised with many Jewish traditions and raised to be very grateful for my Jewish heritage."

During high school, Gifford was a singer in a folk group, "Pennsylvania Next Right", which performed frequently at school assemblies. After high school graduation in 1971, Gifford attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, studying drama and music. During a summer in the early 1970s, she was a live-in secretary/babysitter for Anita Bryant at her home in Miami. Her first regular appearances on national TV were as a singer on the game show Name That Tune, hosted by Tom Kennedy in the late 1970s, in which she would sing small portions of songs that contestants would have to identify.

Early career

Gifford's career took off in 1978 when she joined the cast of the short-lived Hee Haw spinoff, Hee Haw Honeys. She was also a correspondent and substitute anchor on ABC's Good Morning America in the early 1980s.

Relationship History

In September 2005 she became a special correspondent on The Insider, a syndicated entertainment magazine television show, ending her relationship with that program upon her co-hosting role with Today.

She played the role of Miss Hannigan in a concert performance of Annie at Madison Square Garden in December 2006.

On an episode that aired March 27, 2010, she guest starred on The Suite Life on Deck, along with her real-life daughter, Cassidy.

Current Relationship Status

As covered by reputable entertainment media, Kathie Lee Gifford's current relationship status is a matter of public record where confirmed. For the latest verified updates, see the sources section.

Career Context

Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee

On June 24, 1985, Gifford replaced Ann Abernethy as co-host of The Morning Show on WABC-TV with Regis Philbin. The program went into national broadcast in 1988 as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, and Gifford became well known across the country. Throughout the 1990s, morning-TV viewers watched her descriptions of life at home with her sportscaster husband Frank, son Cody, and daughter Cassidy.

In 1990, when TV Guide held a poll for readers to select the most beautiful woman on television, Live! presented a week-long mock campaign to garner votes for Gifford. Gifford wound up winning the poll, receiving more than four times as many votes as the runners-up, Jaclyn Smith and Nicollette Sheridan.

Philbin and Gifford were jointly nominated eight years in a row (1993 to 2000) for Outstanding Talk Show Host during the Daytime Emmy Awards. Gifford decided to leave the show in 2000. She explained that filling in for Carol Burnett on Broadway and guest-hosting Late Show with David Letterman had inspired her to pursue more challenging work. The day after she hosted Late Show on February 24, 2000, she told Regis she had decided to leave Live!. Her last episode aired on July 28, 2000.

Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda

On March 31, 2008, NBC announced that Gifford was to join its morning show, Today, as co-host of the fourth hour titled Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda, alongside Hoda Kotb. This marked her return to morning television; in many markets, she aired directly after her old show, currently called Live with Kelly and Mark. Because the fourth hour of Today airs live at 10:00 am ET, and Live with Kelly and Ryan airs live at 9:00 am ET, Gifford's hour did not compete directly with her former show in most markets. Kotb and Gifford replaced Ann Curry and Natalie Morales. In the weeks prior to Gifford's arrival, ratings indicated 1.9 million viewers of the fourth hour of Today. As of 2014, the fourth hour of Today with Gifford and Kotb averaged 2.15 million total viewers, an increase of 13 percent over the 2008 ratings. On December 11, 2018, it was announced that she would be leaving Today in April 2019. Her final Today Show appearance was on April 5, 2019, with a party, including a video by her children Cody and Cassidy Gifford. In 2019, Gifford and Kotb won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host.

Other media appearances and projects

Gifford has made guest appearances in films and television series, and has several independently released albums on CD, including 2000's The Heart of a Woman, featuring the single "Love Never Fails".

She appeared as a spokesperson for Slim Fast diet shakes after her son Cody was born. She also was the face of Carnival Cruise Lines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, singing "If My Friends Could See Me Now". In 1991, she christened the Carnival Ecstasy, the second of the Fantasy Class of cruise ships. In 1994, she appeared as herself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.

She did a number of voice overs most notably as Echidna in the 1998 TV series Hercules and in Higglytown Heroes as the Mail Carrier Hero in 2004.

Privacy and Public Image

Like many public figures, Kathie Lee Gifford has balanced a public career with private life. Reporting here sticks to what has been confirmed on the record by the individual or by reputable outlets — not paparazzi speculation.

That boundary matters because Kathie Lee Gifford's fan base is large and highly engaged, which means unverified claims can spread quickly. The approach here is conservative by design: confirmed facts from named sources, clear labeling where information is limited, and no reliance on anonymous gossip. When reputable outlets have not confirmed a detail, this article says so rather than filling the gap with speculation.

Why Kathie Lee Gifford's Love Life Draws Attention

Public interest in Kathie Lee Gifford's relationships follows a familiar pattern for high-profile figures: a combination of on-screen charisma, selective public appearances, and the natural curiosity fans feel about people they admire. Entertainment media covers these stories because readers consistently search for them — which is exactly why verified, responsibly-reported answers matter more than rumor aggregation.

For Kathie Lee Gifford specifically, the career trajectory — from early roles to wider recognition — has kept personal life in the spotlight. Each new project tends to renew interest in the off-screen story, and each public appearance gets parsed for clues. The sections above separate what is actually confirmed from what is merely discussed online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources