Hair by Alex McDermott, British Roots Salon, Franklin
Kathie Lee Gifford is a beloved, Emmy Award-winning television personality best known for her 15-year run as co-host of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and later, her role on NBC’s Today show alongside Hoda Kotb for 11 years. It was her warmth, humor, and relatable candor that captured the hearts of audiences everywhere and catapulted Gifford to stardom. Since stepping away from morning television, the 71-year-old has embraced new, creative ventures and continued rewriting her life's second act, including writing books, producing films, and pursuing songwriting.
Now based in Franklin, she continues to explore her passion for faith-driven storytelling. "I do feast on biblical history," says Gifford. "I used to call myself a bible nerd, but I'm not a bible nerd because I don't even call it the bible anymore. I call it the scriptures. When you go to Israel and you study with the greatest biblical teachers and spiritual scholars in the world, especially the Messianic rabbis, and they take you 10 layers, 10 levels deep, it's better than anything you've ever read in Western Christianity. So when you've studied as long as I have, it's hard not to scream. I wish people knew what I've been taught. The lack of spiritual curiosity is upsetting to me because I want people to be full of the Holy Spirit and full of the word of God."
That word of God is in her latest endeavor, Herod & Mary (with co-writer Bryan Litfin, PhD). It was her son Cody who said to her, 'Mom, why don't you start a series of books on ancient evil characters and we'll juxtapose it with good.' "The stories in the bible are so epic," Gifford says. "But you get a story about Herod, and all you really know is that he's not a good guy. If Jesus was the greatest story ever told, then Herod's is one of the greatest stories never told." Herod & Mary is the first in a series of thrillers for the self-proclaimed 'biblical history freak.' Next up is Nero & Paul, due out sometime in 2026.
Gifford is no stranger to writing. She's written several New York Times bestsellers, Broadway plays, movie scripts and even songs. She trusts the creative process. "I never graduated from college," says Gifford. "I wasn't learning a damn thing in college that I would ever use in life, and I knew it, and I said, 'I'm out of here. I'm wasting my time. I don't belong here.' I was born to tell stories, whether it's in musical form or it's in book form, or it's a Broadway musical or it's a whatever. Here's the thing, when I sit down, I don't know how to do what I do. I have no idea. I get these visions, but I also get this inner knowing about what I'm supposed to do, and I just sit down and write."
She probably owes some of that to her father's wise words. "My daddy used to say, 'Find something you'd love to do and then figure out a way to get paid for it,'" says Gifford. "So I got paid to sing at something when I was 10 years old. I've always loved being able to entertain. I'm an entertainer. I've made a living at it since I was 10. And this is my 60th year being an entertainer."
Gifford's been in Franklin since 2019 and has embraced the Tennessee way of life. "I do have three different places where I live. I have three homes and my brownstone is my main home here in Franklin. I bought a little farm three years ago, and that's my little getaway place. It's the only French farm in probably all of Tennessee. It's not a Tennessee farm. It's French. I love that. In honor of my mother and father who made me 18 kilometers outside of Paris many years ago when my father was on General Eisenhower's staff, in a little town called Orval. I named my farm Orval because it's precious. We made it all French, and I've been renovating it, and building onto it in honor of my mom and dad. I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know where they came from because my mother and father were the most beautiful, most decent, most godly people I've ever known. They'll just be a picture in a frame on a table if I don't tell their story." In fact, Gifford would love her parents story to be the last book she writes.
But it's the South's most charming town and vibrant suburb of Nashville that's really captured her heart. "I said to myself, 'I've got to make a change, and I found Franklin. I was trying to buy a friend's penthouse in The Gulch. She wouldn't sell it. She just loved it. So I ended up staying in Franklin a couple of times and I loved it. I fell in love with the culture here, a culture of kindness. So it's been a good decision. People embraced me. They were very hospitable and I felt very, very safe here. I don't live in the past. I can't. That's why I left Greenwich to move here. I needed a new life, new memories, new friends." KathieLeeGifford.com
"If I'm going to truly devote my life and my heart to something, it's got to be true."
"I don't sleep at all. There are some of us that could survive on very little sleep, yet according to every study, I should have died about four dozen years ago."