Kathie Lee Gifford was stunned when Howard Stern called to apologize.
The former “Today” co-anchor has written a new book called “I Want to Matter: Your Life is Too Short and Too Precious to Waste.” It explores the power of self-love and provides readers with self-reflective questions to better understand their hopes and dreams.
In the book, she discusses the power of forgiveness – and how it ended a decades-long feud with the famous shock jock.
KATHIE LEE GIFFORD CELEBRATES VETERANS DAY BY REMEMBERING HER DEAD FATHER: “I KNOW HOW FRAGILE LIFE IS”
“It was a surprise to get a voicemail from Howard Stern,” the 70-year-old recalled to Fox News Digital. “Once I listened to it, I told my kids at the dinner table, ‘Well, the pigs have officially flown. . . . (But) I still believe that God can touch anyone’s heart . . I have no right to hate. Once you start praying for people, you can’t hate them anymore. “It’s a very simple thing.”
“As you grow in your faith, you learn, ‘I need to pray for this person now. What they just said was so horrible,'” Gifford said. “Just pray. Ask God to heal them, because hurt people, hurt people. That’s the truth.”
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Tensions began to boil over in 1995 after Gifford was chosen to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXIX. Her husband, NFL star Frank Gifford, would host the live broadcast. According to the book, Gifford heard boos while she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Gifford soon learned that Stern had asked his fans to boo Gifford during his onstage introduction. Gifford described the experience as “completely surreal” because she had never met Stern or listened to his radio show.
But that would all change years later when Stern appeared on “Today” to announce that he was joining the “America’s Got Talent” jury.
“The Lord … said, ‘Kathie, come down and say hello and wish him luck with the show,'” Gifford said. “And I said, ‘OK Lord.’ I got up from my hair and makeup (room) These girls were told, “Don’t let Kathie near the studio”… I don’t care, I go downstairs: “Where are they?” Are you going? I said, ‘I’m going to go say hello to Howard.'”
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WATCH: KATHIE LEE GIFFORD SAYS HOWARD STERN ASKED FORGIVENESS AFTER DECADES-LONG FEELING
“It’s very, very big and I was in my little apartment coming from Connecticut,” Gifford said. “…There were so many people there that day because he’s bringing a whole entourage…I said, ‘Hey, it’s Kathie Lee.’ I thought it was time, I said, “I want to wish you all the best with the new show.” I got up, went back, sat in the makeup room. They had me. said, “Why did you do that? I said, “God told me.”
Gifford no longer thought about this meeting. Later that day, she was boarding a plane to attend her son’s graduation from USC. She received a phone call. There was no caller ID.
It was Stern.
“He left a voicemail and he says, I can’t even use the language he used,” Gifford said. “It was a lot of F-words, but he was like, ‘I can’t believe how nice you were to me. I was so rude to you and you were so nice. I just have to m ‘apologize to you.’ Please call me.'”
Unsure how to reach Stern, Gifford did not return his call.
“We’re having dinner and I see the no-caller ID,” Gifford said. “I said, ‘That’s him.’ My husband and son didn’t want me to answer that call. He was horrible to me and horrible to my whole family… I had never met this man, never until this day, never had. listened to his show or anything like that. I (heard) he said some things about me. I’d say, “Why, I don’t even know this man.”
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Gifford said she had a private conversation with Stern in which he “asked me to forgive him.”
“I said, ‘I’m really happy for you that you’re asking for forgiveness, because anytime we hurt someone in life, it’s important to ask for forgiveness,'” she said. “‘But I just want you to know that I forgave you 30 years ago.’ He said, “What? I said, ‘I forgave you 30 years ago, and I’ve been praying for you every day ever since.’ I said, “Would you like to come over for dinner sometime? He said, “Would you have me at your house?”
“It’s a very strange duck,” Gifford said. “But then I saw him a few times at Sirius’s, and everything was fine. I can get along with a rock.”
Gifford said his faith in God made forgiving Stern “easy.” According to his book, Stern told Gifford that she “pissed him off because I was everything he wasn’t.”
A spokesperson for Stern, 70, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Today, there are no hard feelings, Gifford insisted. She still prays for him every day.
“I can find something good in anyone,” Gifford said. “This is what my faith teaches me.”
Original article source: Kathie Lee Gifford says Howard Stern asked for forgiveness after argument: ‘God can touch anyone’s heart’
