Kathie Lee Gifford

In 1976, Kathie Lee Gifford married Paul Johnson. She later admitted that it was a show-biz marriage; it lasted for six years.

After her divorce from Johnson in 1983, she met sports commentator Frank Gifford during an episode of ‘Good Morning America’. They were married from 1986 till his death in 2015. Their son Cody Newton Gifford was born on March 22, 1990 and daughter Cassidy Erin Gifford was born on August 2, 1993.

She is a celebrity ambassador for the non-profit organization Childhelp. She makes appearances at fund raising events for child abuse prevention.

When Gifford was born on August 16, 1953, she was named Kathryn Lee Epstein by her mother, Joan, a former naval secretary turned radio singer, and father Aaron Epstein, a musician and former US Navy Chief Petty Officer. Gifford's paternal grandfather was a Russian Jew from Saint Petersburg and her paternal grandmother was of Native American ancestry. Her mother was a relative of writer Rudyard Kipling.

Gifford and her two siblings, David and Michelle, grew up in France and other European countries where their father was stationed. In 1957, they returned to the US, and settled in Bowie, Maryland, where her father worked as a newspaper distributor and insurance agent. Her parents later became proprietors of a resort hotel.

After seeing the film ‘The Restless Ones’ at age 12, she became a born-again Christian.

She went to Bowie High School. During high school, she sang in a folk group, ‘Pennsylvania Next Right’, and performed at school assemblies.

After completing high school in 1971, she attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she studied drama and music. However, she dropped out of the university during her junior year.

At the age of 17, Kathie Lee Gifford won the state Junior Miss pageant and visited Mobile in Alabama to represent Maryland in the competition. There she met Anita Bryant, a co-host of the pageant, and a Christian singer. In the early 1970s, she agreed to work as a live-in secretary and babysitter for Anita Bryant at her home in Miami.

In 1972, she sang on Oral Roberts' television show that was broadcast from Burbank, California. She also traveled throughout the Bible Belt, attending revival meetings.

In 1976, her spiritual book ‘The Quiet Riot’ was published. She also released three gospel albums between 1976 and 1978, and appeared on religious television shows like ‘The 700 Club’ with her first husband Paul Johnson, her Bible study group leader and owner of a Christian music publishing company.

While visiting a friend on the set of the NBC soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’, she was selected to play Nurse Callahan, which she did for nine months.

In 1977-78, she was featured as a singer on ‘Name That Tune’. This exposure opened up a number of career opportunities, including a role in the TV sitcom ‘Hee Haw Honeys’.

Kathie Lee Gifford is best known for her appearance in the TV talk show ‘Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee’ which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin. The show, which ran for over a decade, was a highly successful one and helped establish Gifford as a household name in America.