Kathie Lee Gifford Reveals If She Wants to Find Love Again After Husband Frank's Death (Exclusive)

Charlotte Triggs, Brianne TracyTue, June 30, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Kathie Lee Gifford at her home outside of Nashville on June 9Credit: John Shearer -

Kathie Lee Gifford says she is not dating and does not plan to marry again after Frank Gifford's death

She reflects on their 29-year marriage, including overcoming challenges like Frank's public infidelity in 1997

Gifford is focused on finding joy in the present and cherishing her role as a grandmother to five grandchildren

Kathie Lee Gifford is opening up about her love life — and how widowhood has shaped it.

As the 11-year anniversary of her husband Frank Gifford's death approaches in August, the television personality, 72, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story, on newsstands Friday, that she's not interested in searching for a new romance.

"I am not dating anybody right now, and I don't want to date," says Gifford. "I'm not looking, and I don't think I'll ever get married again."

"I had an opportunity for that to maybe happen, and it didn't work out," she continues. "Frank will always be the love of my life. If God wants to do something miraculous, like give me another great love [then I'm open to it]. And so I leave room for the miraculous to happen."

Gifford met Frank, the football star-turned broadcaster exactly 23 years her senior, during her stint hosting Good Morning America in 1982. They wed in 1986 and welcomed son Cody in 1990 and daughter Cassidy in 1993.

Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford in 2010Credit: Patrick McMullan/Getty

While there were many joyous moments in their marriage, Gifford recalls going through a rocky patch in 1997, when a tabloid trailed Frank to a hotel room and revealed his infidelity publicly. After taking a week away from both home and work, Gifford ultimately decided to work through things with him.

"I came home a week after that happened [to reconcile with Frank]," Gifford says. "There's not a day that goes by that somebody doesn't come up to me and say, 'I just want you to know I had separated from my husband, and I went back. We went for counseling. We healed our marriage.'"

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The day Frank died at 84 on Aug. 9, 2015, Gifford says she "found him when he had had this massive heart attack."

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"Cody was home from school, and we tried to resuscitate him," she says. "The EMT guys came, and they said, 'Mrs. Gifford, we just want you to know your husband, he never suffered. He never saw the ground he fell on.'"

Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford in 2012Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Frank's posthumous brain scans revealed he had stage 4 CTE, a progressive, degenerative brain disease often found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma.

"We donated his brain to science to be studied for CTE, which my son is very, very involved with now," Gifford says. "A lot of people have brain trauma all over the world, not just football players."

Kathie Lee Gifford on the cover of PEOPLECredit: John Shearer

Though Frank's death was sudden, Gifford says her husband was very aware that their age difference meant he would likely die before her.

"He was one week shy of his 85th birthday, but he was ready to go," she says. "He said, 'You know, hon, I'm not afraid. I'm starting to get really curious.'"

Kathie Lee Gifford at her home outside of Nashville on June 9Credit: John Shearer

In her current chapter, Gifford — who recently filmed an upcoming documentary about her life, wrote her latest book, Nero and Paul, and is now a grandmother, or "bubbe," to five — is focused on staying in the present.

"I need to find joy in the moment I'm in right now, because none of us know when is our last breath," she says. "Instead of [saying], 'One day I'm going to take that vacation, one day I'm going to do this...', find joy right now."

For more from Kathie Lee Gifford, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”