Kathie Lee Gifford is on the mend after suffering from a fall that led her to fracture her pelvis in two places.
On Tuesday, Gifford told People magazine that she was required to stay in the hospital for a week for physical therapy after the fall. The former “Today” show co-host was recovering from hip replacement surgery when she “just tripped.”
Gifford told the outlet that the day before her fall, she “moved 300 books by myself” during a book signing in Nashville, Tennessee. “I weakened my body,” she explained.
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“It’s my own fault,” Gifford continued.
The following day, one of Gifford’s friends paid a visit to her home at the time of the fall.
“It didn’t take much, because I was weak in that spot,” Gifford told the outlet. “And 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. but anyway, here I am.”
Gifford described the experience as “humbling,” and happily stayed in the hospital for a week because she did not “trust” herself.
“You think you know your body and the next thing you know, your body changes when you get older,” she said. “And as much as I don’t wanna think about it, I am.”
Gifford continued, “It’s summer for everybody but me. But it’s OK. I’m going to get out to my little farm one of these days and stick my feet in my salt pool. The Lord is telling me it’s time to slow down. I’ve been running my whole life. The Lord is telling me, ‘You’ve planted a gazillion roses. Try smelling them.'”
Earlier this month, Gifford told the outlet that recovering from her hip replacement surgery has been “one of the most painful situations” of her entire life.
She added, “It’s been really hard.”
Following her procedure, Gifford “jumped off that gurney after my surgery,” but quickly realized her body — unlike her mind — was not prepared for a slower change of pace.
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“I walked, I climbed, I walked, and my doctor said, ‘Kathie, no. You have got to realize that this is serious,'” she said.
Gifford boasted that she was “off my walker in two days” and was then off all of her medication in three days, but “then I did too much. I just did too much because that’s who I am.”
“I started carrying books around and signing and getting ready, and my grandchildren came to visit,” she said.
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“And you can’t. I have learned from this that you can only do so much. You’re just human. You’re just human. And I’m so grateful.”
Her procedure was necessary as Gifford noted her “hips [were] down to the nubs,” something doctors told her was due to her incredibly active lifestyle.
“You climbed mountains, you made movies, you got on stages. You never took off your high heels, and you kept going and that’s why you’re going through what you’re going through,” she remembered specialists telling her.
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Despite that, Gifford has no regrets about why she needed surgery, or the difficult recovery process.
“[I ask myself] would I change that? No, I was doing what God put me on this Earth to do. Every year of it, I was doing what He called me to do,” she said.
In the early 1980s, she began working as a “Good Morning America” correspondent, and in 1985, she joined Regis Philbin to host “The Morning Show” on a local New York City station. Three years later, the show was launched nationally as “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee,” and she has been a household name ever since.
Fox News Digital’s Emily Trainham contributed to this report.
