Hoda Kotb recently gave Today show viewers an update on her former co-host Kathie Lee Gifford. On Wednesday, Kotb brought up Gifford to her current co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, saying, “By the way, Kat’s living her best life, she’s in Nashville, she’s writing music, she is living her best life.” Kotb added, per Us Weekly, “She’s playing with the cutest grandkids, putting out good music, so Kat, love you.”
Gifford co-hosted the fourth hour of Today — dubbed Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda — from 2008 until 2018. When announcing her retirement from the show, Gifford opened up about feeling “relieved,” saying, “I’ve known it was coming for a long long time and you want to get your story out before somebody else tries to tell your story in an inaccurate way.” She added, “I’ve always tried to be an authentic person, I’ve been honest all along, so when you’re misrepresented, it bothers you because you say, ‘I want everybody to know my truth.’”
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The longtime TV host went on to share, “I went to our bosses here, actually almost two years ago and said, ‘I’m going to do one more year with Hoda woman. I’ll go out. I’ll retire with 10, a nice round number, 10 years with my sun goddess from Egypt.’ And so that was the arrangement until we had some turmoil here in our midst.”
Gifford then went on to reveal that while many were surprised at the news, Kotb has actually known for some time that it was coming. “Hoda’s known it for a long, long time,” Gifford confessed. “All these other projects have been bubbling up … and it’s so exciting. Movies and music and so many wonderful things. And I need the time to do them properly.”
“Noah Oppenheim came to me and basically said, ‘Kathie, can you just stay? Say for a little longer?’” Gifford continued. “I don’t want to leave, I just have to do my other stuff. So I said, ‘If you guys can work it out for me so I can still do my projects, and I’ll stay.’ And I was thrilled with that decision. But now there’s like, six other projects.”
In the years since leaving Today, Gifford has taken on a number of projects, including writing and starring in the romantic comedy film Then Came You, which also features Craig Ferguson and Elizabeth Hurley. She also filmed the Hallmark Christmas movie A Godwink Christmas, and has plans for more films. Additionally, Kotb stated that Gifford wrote the forthcoming pop song, “3 Little Words,” performed by Louis York featuring Tamia, which will be released on Friday, Jan. 12.
