How Gifford saved her marriage

Kathie Lee Gifford knows too well how Eliot Spitzer’s wife feels, says Gerri Hirshey in Ladies’ Home Journal. In 1997, Gifford’s husband, NFL legend Frank Gifford, was famously caught in an extramarital tryst with a married former flight attendant. The Gifford marriage has survived, and now the TV host hopes her own experience can help other wronged wives, especially those in the public eye. In March, when then–New York Gov. Spitzer was forced to resign after admitting he frequented prostitutes, Gifford publicly expressed her sympathy for what his wife, Silda, was going through. While no wife should put up with a continued pattern of bad behavior or abuse, Gifford says, it is possible to forgive a cheating husband. She has, although at first she doubted that she could. “My counselor said, ‘If you can’t forgive your husband, forgive your children’s father.’ It changed everything,” she says. “Because my children’s father is the finest man I know. He’s easy to forgive, rather than the one who hurt me personally. The minute I got my eyes off me, that’s when the real healing started.” But it wasn’t easy, and the healing process continues. “It doesn’t seem possible that you can come through it at the time. Trust takes one second to lose and a lifetime to rebuild.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up