- - Kathie Lee Gifford Has No Interest in Doing a Family Reality Show, Despite Helping Bring “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” to Life

Desiree AnelloNovember 23, 2025 at 10:54 PM

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Kathie Lee Gifford; Gifford and Kris Jenner -

Kathie Lee Gifford explained why she turned down a family reality show and passed the opportunity to her longtime friend, Kris Jenner

“I'm not acting out this life of mine. I'm living it,” the TV personality told Fox News

After Kathie Lee turned down the opportunity, Kris and her family were quickly launched to stardom with their reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Kathie Lee Gifford prefers to keep her personal life private.

Decades after she recommended that producers approach her longtime friend Kris Jenner to create a family reality show, inspiring the birth of Keeping up with the Kardashians, the 72-year-old TV personality explained to Fox News why she didn’t want to keep the spotlight for herself.

"I'm not acting out this life of mine. I'm living it," Kathie Lee told the outlet in a recent interview. "That's why I said 'no' to a reality series every time it was offered to me. I said, 'No, I'm in show business and I chose that as a child. My children didn't. I'm going to go home to my children and my husband every day and have a life that's private as much as possible. Keep my children out of it.' "

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

From left: Kathie Lee Gifford, Cassidy Gifford, Kris Jenner and Kylie Jenner attend the premiere of 'The Gallows' in 2015

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Indeed, Kathie Lee has cherished spending quality time with her two kids, Cody and Cassidy — whom she welcomed with late husband Frank Gifford — and her five grandchildren: Frank, Finn, Ford, Rosie and Faith. She also noted that after she passed along the opportunity to Kris, 70, it became very clear that “reality” was a bit of an overstatement.

“Kris is acting on her show,” Kathie Lee explained. "Those kinds of reality shows, they have a producer who says, 'This is what's going to happen today, make it real, make it fun.' "

Despite choosing different paths in life, the former talk show host emphasized that her and Kris’ friendship has remained strong throughout the years.

"I was 22, and she was 20 when we met,” Kathie Lee recalled. “Nobody knew who I was, nobody knew who Kris was, and we just fell crazy in love with each other. I've had so much fun."

"It's been nothing but success, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, ever since," she added of the show that launched Kris and her family to fame. "But I haven't changed, and down deep, Kris hasn't either. She's got 13 grandchildren now. I've got five and, you know she's in a happy relationship, and I'm a widow. And yet we're the same people that we were when we met all those years ago. Just we have a lot more to show for it, that's for sure.”

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On Nov. 10, Kathie Lee shared a photo from Kris’ James Bond-themed 70th birthday party, which saw no shortage of the reality star’s famous friends and family members.

“So happy to be able to get to California a day early to get to spend private time with my @krisjenner,” she captioned her post. “And then to be able to be in the car with her on the way to her party surrounded by her closest family and friends just all made me extraordinarily happy. I love you my friend and I always will.”

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