Kathie Lee Gifford Has Hip Replacement Surgery, Doctor Says It Was One of His Worst Cases

Kathie Lee Gifford is opening up about her recent hip replacement surgery.

During Today on Tuesday, the 70-year-old author returned to studio 1A and sat down with Hoda Kotb , 59, to share that she's on the road to recovery while promoting her new novel, Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior . 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.

Her hip pain was so bad that her doctor remarked that she was one of his worst cases.

"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.'"

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.

She continued, "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."

Gifford agreed, saying, "You can't fool your body. It knows how old you are and it knows where you've been."

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."

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