Kathie Lee Gifford was shocked when Howard Stern called to apologize. The former “Today” co-anchor recently wrote a new book titled “I Want to Matter: Your Life Is Too Short and Too Precious to Waste.” It explores the power of self-love and features self-reflecting questions for readers to understand their hopes and dreams better. In the book, Gifford discussed the power of forgiveness and how it ended a decades-long feud with Stern.
The 70-year-old recalled to Fox News Digital, “It was a surprise to get a voicemail from Howard Stern. Once I listened to it, I said to my kids at the table, ‘Well, pigs have now officially flown. . . . [But] I just always believe God can touch anybody’s heart . . . I’m not allowed to hate anybody that hates me. Once you start praying for people, you can’t hate them. Love cannot live where hate does, and it’s a very simple thing. As you grow in your faith, you learn, ‘I’ve got to pray for that person right now. What they just said was so horrible.’ Just pray. Ask God to heal them because hurt people, hurt people. It’s the truth.”
The bad blood first boiled in 1995 after Gifford had been chosen to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXIX. Her husband, NFL star Frank Gifford, would be hosting the live telecast. According to the book, Gifford heard booing as she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Gifford soon learned that Stern had asked his fans to boo Gifford when she was introduced on stage. She described the experience as “completely surreal” as she had never met Stern nor listened to his radio show. However, everything would change years later when Stern was a guest on “Today” to announce he was joining the judging panel at “America’s Got Talent.”
Gifford said, “The Lord… said, ‘Kathie, go down and say hello to him, and wish him well with the show.'” And I said, ‘OK, Lord.’ I got up out of my hair and makeup [room]. Those girls had been told, ‘Don’t let Kathie go anywhere near the studio.’… I couldn’t care less. I go downstairs. They go, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m going to go say hello to Howard.’” She said, “He’s very, very tall, and I was in my little flats coming in from Connecticut,” said Gifford. “. . . There were so many people that day because he brings quite the entourage. I said, ‘Hey, it’s Kathie Lee.’ I thought it was about time. I said, ‘I want to wish you all the best with the new show.’ I got up, went back, sat down in the makeup room. They’d said, ‘Why’d you do that?’ I said, ‘God told me to.’”
Gifford thought nothing more about that meeting. Later that day, she was hopping on a plane to attend her son’s graduation at USC. She received a phone call. There was no caller ID. It was Stern. She said, “He left a voicemail, and he says – I can’t even use the language that he used. It was a lot of F-words, but he was saying, ‘I can’t believe how nice you were to me. I’ve been so rude to you, and you were so nice. I just need to apologize to you. Please call me.’” Not knowing how to reach Stern back, Gifford didn’t return his call. Gifford said she had a private conversation with Stern where he “asked me to forgive him.”
Gifford said her faith in God made it “easy” to forgive Stern. According to her book, Stern told Gifford she “pissed him off because I was everything he wasn’t.” Today, there are no hard feelings, Gifford insisted. She still prays for him every day.