WHY KATHIE LEE AIN’T BACK ON TV
New hosts try to fill her shoes
RETIRED chatterbox Kathie Lee Gifford has been nixing big-time offers for a TV comeback, according to pals who say she hates most blabbermouth hosts and finds the private confessions they spill on air embarrassing.
“When Kathie Lee gets asked to be on shows, she shoots down all requests,” dishes an insider. “She’s happy to be away from that world. She prefers her quieter existence in Nashville.”
Sources snitch the 70-yearold just rolls her eyes when Kelly Ripa makes bold statements about her love life with hubby and Live co-host Mark Consuelos and when Jenna Hager Bush dishes celebrity gossip she clearly hasn’t fact-checked.
“Watching shows like Live with Kelly and Today with Jenna and even her old coworker Hoda Kotb are a bore for Kathie Lee,” says the insider. “She thinks they’re lame. It’s a total cringefest for her. She watches them and then turns it off quickly.”
The TV icon feels today’s talk hosts are basically “trying to be like her, and she wishes they’d stop it because they’re taking what she did and trashing it up by baring too much information,” says the insider.
“Kathie Lee would talk about her kids and other cute stuff like that, but she’d never talk about sex or anything too private about her and late hubby Frank Gifford.”
Kathie Lee was married to the former football great and sports commentator until his death in 2015 at 84. She eventually quit her co-hosting job at Today and revived her singing career after moving to Nashville, where she met her current beau, Richard Spitz.