Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford Just Reunited on the 'Today Show'
Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb co-hosted the fourth hour of Today from 2008 to 2018.
Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb are back together on the TODAY show – and they're back to their old ways! Kotb, who currently hosts the fourth hour with Jenna Bush Hager, reunited with her former TODAY co-host on Wednesday, July 17, speaking to Gifford about her new book, Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior, while reminding fans of their hilarious dynamic.
In a preview of their on-air discussion, Gifford, 70, joked that she was having a "private conversation" with Kotb, 59, quipping that their chat about her new book would be "not that much about my life" because she has "no life anymore."
Gifford also gave her best impression of her former co-host Regis Philbin, who passed away two decades after his 12-year stint hosting Live with Regis and Kathie with Gifford came to an end in 2000. "Do you know what Regis would say to you about this book?" she asked Kotb, with whom she hosted the fourth hour of TODAY from 2008 to 2018. "And yet another book you'll never read!" Kotb couldn't hold back her laughter as Gifford later thanked her for "taking the time to read two pages" of her new book, teasing, "I read three. You're welcome!"
Gifford also opened up to Kotb about her recent hip replacement surgery after going under the knife about a month ago. Gifford noted she was in "agonizing pain" before her surgery and had "one of the worst hips" her doctor had ever seen before the surgery.
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Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on Thursday, January 23, 2020.
- Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)"My doctor finished the surgery, came in to tell me it went beautifully, and then said, 'Kathie, how have you been existing all this time?'" Gifford recalled to Kotb. "He said, 'It's one of the worst hips I've ever seen.'"
Kotb noted that her friend's active life might have something to do with the rate of her hip degeneration. "You're always on the go," Kotb told Gifford, noting, "I never once saw you stop, even if you were in the car. I remember you'd be writing notes. You're always- your brain, your body is always working." Gifford agreed that her lifestyle most likely had something to do with her need for surgery, saying, "You can't fool your body. It knows how old you are and it knows where you've been."