Kathie Lee says she still ‘loves’ Lauer

Kathie Lee Gifford still has “love” for her former “Today” show colleague Matt Lauer, more than a year after he was fired from the morning show for sexual misconduct.

Gifford also said, in a new interview with People, that she has recently texted him and prayed for him because she believes in “100 chances” for those who have made “mistakes.”

Lauer, now 61, was canned from the NBC show in November 2017 after accusations that included giving a colleague a sex toy as a present along with a note about how he wanted to use it on her, calling a different woman to his office and exposing his penis and then reprimanding her for not having sex with him, and having a button under his desk that he used to lock his office door to solicit female staffers.

“I was texting him last week and praying for him this morning,” Gifford told People. “That’s what a friendship means to me. I’ve been through very, very hard times in my life and I saw my friends drop away because they weren’t my friends. Times like that test the mettle of friendships. The Matt I love is the Matt I still do.”

Gifford, 65, is set to leave her gig as co-host of the fourth hour of “Today” alongside Hoda Kotb on April 5. Co-host Jenna Bush Hager will move into her spot in the fourth hour, joining Kotb. Gifford made the announcement in December that she was leaving “Today” after more than a decade, and NBC News President Noah Oppenheim wrote in a memo to staff that she was departing to focus on “other creative endeavors.”

Gifford believes that Lauer (both in photo) has served his penance. “He made mistakes and he paid dearly for them. But I believe in second, third and 100 chances,” Gifford told People. “I believe in redemption because Jesus did.”