The 70-year-old TV personality told ETshe suffered a fall, which fractured her pelvis in two places, amid her recovery from hip replacement surgery . Gifford had overexerted herself moving books for a book signing event in Nashville and wound up tripping the next day when she went to answer the door for her friends at her home.
"It didn't take much, because I was weak in that spot," Gifford explained to People . "The next thing you know, I am back in the hospital with a fractured pelvis, the front and the back. That's more painful than anything I went through with the hip. The pelvis is unbelievably painful."
"You think you know your body and the next thing you know, your body changes when you get older," she shared. "As much as I don't wanna think about it, I am."
The former Today show anchor looks like she's on the mend, as new photos taken by her son, Cody Gifford, show her smiling in a hospital bed.
Kathie Lee Gifford was recently hospitalized with a fractured pelvis after falling following her hip replacement surgery.
Cody Gifford
Looking at a laptop in front of her, Gifford remains busy at work promoting her new book, Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior .
Kathie Lee Gifford was recently hospitalized with a fractured pelvis after falling following her hip replacement surgery.
Cody Gifford
Earlier this month -- before the pelvis injury -- Gifford appeared on the Today show, returning to studio 1A to sit down with Hoda Kotb , 59. Gifford shared that she was on the road to recovery after her hip replacement while promoting her new novel.
Kathie Lee Gifford attends the 'Unsung Hero' Nashville world premiere at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on April 15, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Prior to her procedure, Gifford was in "agonizing pain" and had "one of the worst hips" her doctor had ever seen. Gifford said she had her hip replacement surgery about a month ago.
"I had been in such agonizing pain," Gifford said, noting that her physical discomfort "was terrible" before surgery.
"My doctor finished the surgery, came in to tell me it went beautifully and then said, 'Kathie, how have you been existing all this time?'" Gifford recalled. "He said, 'It's one of the worst hips I've ever seen.'"
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Gifford's active lifestyle may be partially to blame for her hip deterioration.
"You're always on the go," Kotb told Gifford. The two co-hosted Today together for 11 years before Gifford retired and relocated to Nashville in 2019. "I never once saw you stop, even if you were in the car. I remember, you'd be writing notes. You're always- your brain, your body is always working."
In April, Gifford sat down with ET 's Rachel Smith for an intimate interview, where she addressed her decision to leave two of TV's most popular morning shows: Today and Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee .
"Part of it is just gut instinct, you know? I've been in this business 60 years now, so I've had a lot of failures and a lot of successes -- successes beyond my wildest dreams," Gifford told ET. "You're sitting right now under four Emmys I never dreamed I'd receive. I'm grateful for them but, the older I get, the less that matters as well."
She added, "I look at [my Emmys] and I'm grateful, thank you, Lord. But my trophies are the people that I've touched in life, the people [in] both of those places. I've worked 15 years with Regis, and 11 years with Hoda. The trophies we gather in life that truly matter are human, you know."
Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior is out now.
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