WIDOW KATHIE LEE’S MARRIAGE ULTIMATUM
Tells beau to put ring on it – or get lost
FORMER Today host Kathie Lee Gifford is so desperate to ditch her widow’s weeds, she’s issued her beau, Randy Cronk, an ultimatum — put a ring on it or she’s gone, sources tell GLOBE.
The 68-year-old mom of two is “in love” with the 58-yearold insurance mogul and “wants to take things to the next level — the sooner the better,” dishes an insider.
“She’s convinced he feels the same way. This relationship has been moving along very fast and they spend all of their free time together.
“But Kathie Lee’s very strict about these things and would never consider officially living together unless she was married.
“She made Randy understand this from the beginning but now it’s ‘get off the pot’ or she’ll walk.”
Kathie Lee met Cronk not long after she pulled up stakes in Connecticut in 2019 and moved south to Nashville, and they’ve been going strong ever since, spies dish.
Kathie Lee believes she’s been given a second chance at love after her husband Frank Gifford keeled over and died at 84 in their home in 2015, ending a 30-year marriage, insiders say.
Now after nearly six years of widowhood, Kathie Lee’s found new love with Randy, according to sources.
“When Kathie Lee moved to Tennessee she vowed to find happiness and maybe someone new,” says a source. “When she was introduced to Randy, she found him kind, funny and sexy, but she dared not believe she’d met a ‘keeper.’
“Then just six months later, she introduced him to her kids and her best friend Hoda Kotb.
“When they all gave him their stamp of approval, she realized perhaps she’d met her perfect new match!”
Since Kathie Lee and Cronk are devoted Christians, they continue to live in their own places. Should they marry, they will move in together, sources say.
Kathie Lee’s digs are an 8,000-square-foot palace in upscale Franklin, near the homes of celebs Reba McEntire, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, and Taylor Swift.
Now it’s up to Randy to pop the question, spies say.
“It’s been two years already they’ve been dating and she’s hinting loudly that it’s time to start a new chapter,” says the insider. “She feels if it’s meant to be, he’ll propose.
“But her friends worry she’ll end up pushing him away.”