Kathie Lee Gifford Shared Why She Took This Unusual Approach to Her Marriage After Husband’s Affair

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In 1997, Kathie Lee Gifford’s husband, Frank Gifford, had an affair with a former flight attendant — and it was exposed for the world to see by a tabloid. That very public event was a major crisis 11 years into their marriage, but her unusual approach in the aftermath made the rest of their years together happy and healthy. 

Kathie Lee discussed why she chose forgiveness over anger with Entertainment Tonight while promoting her new book, I Want to Matter: Your Life Is Too Short and Too Precious to Waste. The former talk show host revealed that she made “a choice” following Frank’s affair with Suzen Johnson. “I could have let the seed germinate but I don’t want to be that person, that bitter, angry, unhappy, miserable human being ’cause you know what you end up doing? You end up making everybody around you every bit as miserable,” she explained. “I have always felt from my earliest youth that I had the choice every day of my life to be a blessing, or a burden and I want to be a blessing.”

At the time, her children, Cassidy and Cody, were only 4 and 7 years old and she felt that her faith was “definitely tested” because she believed that Frank was her “soulmate.” The “very painful” time spun her into a deep depression as she had to put on a brave face each morning for the millions of viewers who watched Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. “Nobody knows what I went through. You feel hopeless and you don’t want to live anymore,” she admitted. However, she doesn’t regret her decision to stay with Frank whom she called a “very good, dear, gentle, generous man” even though “the person you loved the most in your life is the person that can hurt you the most.”

It’s understandable why Kathie Lee doesn’t love revisiting the past because the circumstances surrounding Frank’s affair are still jaw-dropping to this day. Johnson was hired by the tabloid, The Globe, to seduce Frank at the Regency Hotel in New York City. The outlet had rigged the room with recording equipment to capture their infidelity on camera, according to The Seattle Times. In 1997, then-Globe Editorial Director Dan Schwartz defended the tabloid’s actions, confidently noting, “The issue is not what we did, the issue is what Frank Gifford did. . . . If we did something that someone would consider close to entrapment, I’d say so do the police every day in catching criminals. We caught a moral criminal.”

His outlet published 10 photos from the video clip of Frank’s tryst with Johnson that took place over two days. He reportedly told his affair partner, “I’ve wanted to do this from the day I met you. You are beautiful.” Kathie Lee and Frank at first denied the allegations, but after the evidence was published in The Globe, they asked for privacy because “this experience has been as painful for us as it would be for any other couple.” Kathie Lee and Frank remained married up until his death in 2015.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples who have stayed together after cheating scandals.