{"id":428729,"date":"2026-01-21T23:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428729\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:28:12","slug":"kathie-lee-gifford-praises-hoda-for-showing-up-for-her-when-frank-gifford-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428729\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathie Lee Gifford Praises Hoda for Showing Up for Her When Frank Gifford Died"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathie Lee Gifford says Hoda Kotb was a shoulder to lean on after the death of her husband<\/a>, football great and sportscaster Frank Gifford.<\/p>\n

Frank died at the age of 84 on Aug. 9, 2015, which happens to be Hoda\u2019s birthday. Kathie Lee and Hoda reflected on that day on the Jan. 21 episode of Hoda\u2019s \u201cMaking Space\u201d<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted you to know before you got off a plane from New Orleans and saw on social media or something,\u201d Kathie Lee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, I don\u2019t even want to tell her because she\u2019s going to come here. She\u2019s going to say, \u2018I\u2019ve gotta go be with her. I\u2019ve gotta go hug her. I won\u2019t stay long.\u2019 I could just hear your process. You pulled a Hoda that day, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoda has vivid memories of that phone call to this day.<\/p>\n

\"KathieKathie Lee Gifford, Frank Gifford and Hoda Kotb in 2010.Ben Hider \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember, because I was on the plane and I was like, \u2018Oh, Kath\u2019s calling,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I was just landing, or just about to, and you said, \u2018Frank went to the Lord.\u2019 And I literally was, I don\u2019t know. I was so shocked because I\u2019d just seen you guys together, and I remember you said, \u2018And don\u2019t come here. I\u2019m good, I\u2019m fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoda said Kathie Lee reminded her it was her birthday, but she was determined to be by her friend\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou said, \u2018It\u2019s your birthday,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd I remember going to the airport, whoever I was with, nobody knows. Anyway, I said to whoever that person was, \u2018Um, you go home, I\u2019m going to go see Kath. And I remember walking into your backyard and I saw the back of you and I just was standing there … and you turned around and you go, \u2018I\u2019m glad you came.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kathie Lee, it\u2019s a moment that has stayed with her all these years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere (are) certain things that are just seared into your soul, and that was one of them,\u201d she said. \u201cYou never forget that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank was survived by Kathie Lee and their two kids, Cody and Cassidy, who have gone on to give him and Kathie Lee five grandchildren<\/a>. Cody and his wife, Erika, are the parents of three children<\/a>, while Cassidy and her husband, Ben, have two kids<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hoda had previously talked about being there for Kathie Lee after Frank died.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe asked for people not to come to her house,\u201d Hoda said on TODAY<\/a> the day after his death. \u201cSo I left the airport and drove to her house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got there she looked at me and she said, \u2018I\u2019m so glad you never listen to me.\u2019 You know how she talks about her faith and I know she lives her faith and I believed it, but I\u2019ve got to tell you I didn\u2019t believe it more than I did yesterday when I saw her after that. Frank had passed away hours before and she said she was rejoicing in his life. When she said it, you felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathie Lee Gifford says Hoda Kotb was a shoulder to lean on after the death of her husband,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-428729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}