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Kathie Lee Gifford (born Kathryn Lee Epstein on August 16, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress, famous for her stint on the television talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin for 15 years.
Early life
Gifford was born in Paris, France to Aaron Leon Epstein and Joan; she grew up in Maryland, in the United States. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Christian; Gifford grew up in a culturally Jewish environment, but became a Born-again Christian at the age of 12 (after seeing a Christian education film directed by Billy Graham), although she still refers to herself as "Jewish". She has a brother, Rev. David Paul Epstein, who is an evangelical Baptist preacher and pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan.
1970s
Gifford's career took off in the 1970s (during her first marriage to Paul Johnson) as a vocalist on the game show Name That Tune with Tom Kennedy (she performed the "sing a tune" segment). In 1978, she joined the cast of the short-lived Hee Haw sitcom spinoff, Hee Haw Honeys.
Gifford appeared in television ads for Carnival Cruise Lines beginning in 1984. The ads were the first cruise line advertisements to air on network television.
"Live with Regis and Kathie Lee"
Following her divorce from Johnson in 1983, Gifford met television commentator Frank Gifford during an episode of ABC's Good Morning America; the couple married in 1986.
By that time, she was several months into her most famous television role, as a full-time morning talk show personality. In 1985, she replaced Cyndy Garvey as co-host of The Morning Show on WABC-TV with Regis Philbin. The chemistry between the two provided stability to a show that had gone through a series of titles and hosts (AM New York, The Stanley Siegel Show) during the previous decade. 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, millions of morning-TV viewers watched her descriptions of life at home with her sportscaster husband and their two children: son Cody Newton Gifford (born in 1990) and Cassidy Erin Gifford (born in 1993), although Gifford has been gently ridiculed for constantly talking about her children on the air. She has appeared as a spokesperson for Slim Fast diet shakes after the birth of her son, Cody.
Gifford has claimed that her religious faith has carried her through several personal crises. In 1996, the National Labor Committee, a human rights group, discovered that sweatshop labor was used to make clothes for the Kathie Lee line, sold at Wal-Mart. She tearfully apologized on air for the situation, and her husband visited the Manhattan sweatshop to give money to the underpaid workers.
She also was embarrassed in 1997, when it was revealed that her husband had an affair (that was photographed and audiotaped) with a former TWA flight attendant, Suzen Johnson. However, after counseling sessions, she forgave him, and they are still together today. Gifford did a television interview with Barbara Walters to discuss the situation and her emotional reaction to the problems in her personal life.
Later career
After 15 years as Philbin's WABC-TV sidekick, Gifford left Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 2000. She has since 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 music from the Big Band era as well as Contemporary Christian songs.
Since September 2005, Gifford is a special correspondent on The Insider, a syndicated entertainment-magazine show.
In her free time, she works for Variety: The Children's Charity. She has also sponsored and supported two shelters in New York City for babies born with AIDS or a congenital crack cocaine addiction. These shelters were named in honor of her children, Cody and Cassidy.
External links
- Gifford interview, 2004, The Christian Post
- Gifford interview transcript, Larry King Live, 2000
- Official site