Kathie Lee Gifford was born Kathryn Lee Epstein in 1953 in Paris, France, while her American parents were stationed there. Her father, Aaron Epstein, was a former U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer who later became a musician. Her mother, Joan Epstein, was a singer. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to the United States, and Kathie Lee was raised in Maryland, where she attended Bowie High School.
During high school, she was a member of a folk music group called Pennsylvania Next Right, which often performed at school assemblies. After graduating, she studied music and drama at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Gifford's paternal grandfather was a Russian Jew from Saint Petersburg, while her paternal grandmother was of Native American descent. On her mother's side, she has German, English, and French Canadian ancestry and is reportedly distantly related to author Rudyard Kipling. At age 12, after watching The Restless Ones, a Billy Graham film, she became a born-again Christian. In an interview with Larry King, she shared that though she was raised with Jewish traditions, she is deeply appreciative of her Jewish heritage.
In the early 1970s, Gifford worked as a babysitter and as a secretary for singer and conservative activist Anita Bryant. Her entry into television came when she began appearing as a singer and co-host on the game show Name That Tune, hosted by Tom Kennedy, from 1974 to 1978. She also had a role in the short-lived variety series Hee Haw Honeys, a spinoff of Hee Haw.
Following her divorce from composer Paul Johnson, Gifford met former NFL player and ABC sports commentator Frank Gifford while working on an episode of Good Morning America. They married in 1986. Around that time, she was hired to co-host The Morning Show on WABC-TV with Regis Philbin, replacing Ann Abernathy. The program was later picked up nationally and renamed Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Gifford co-hosted the show for 15 years, becoming a fixture in American daytime television.
In addition to her long tenure on Live, Gifford transitioned to NBC's Today in 2008, where she co-hosted the show's fourth hour alongside Hoda Kotb. She occasionally appeared during the first three hours of Today and also contributed as a correspondent for NBC News. Over the course of her career, she received 11 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and won her first Emmy in 2010 as part of the Today team.
Gifford appeared in advertisements for Carnival Cruise Lines beginning in 1984, further expanding her public profile. In the 1990s, she faced criticism after allegations surfaced that her clothing line used sweatshop labor. She publicly denied knowledge of the labor conditions and took steps to support better oversight and ethical practices in manufacturing.
| Birth Date: | 16 Aug, 1953 |
| Age: | 66 yrs |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Paris |
| Education: | Oral Roberts University |
| Gender: | Female |
| Description: | American actress and talk show host |
| Twitter Id: | KathieLGifford |
| Spouse: | Frank Gifford[1986-2015] |
| Net Worth 2021: | 60 million |
