Kathie Lee Gifford reveals why stars are fleeing Hollywood for rural America

Fox News

20-05-2025

Kathie Lee Gifford weighed in on the celebrity exodus from Hollywood.
In 2019, the 71-year-old former TV host moved from Greenwich, Connecticut, to Frankin, Tennessee, after her departure from her morning show "Today," which films in New York City.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Gifford shared her thoughts on what has prompted a growing number of stars to embrace simpler lives in more rural parts of the country.
"They've had the other, and it's not fulfilling," the Q50 ambassador for QVC said on the red carpet at QVC's TikTok Super Brand Day in Santa Monica, California.
"You get a lot of money, and you notice that by getting a lot of money, they're able to move someplace where they can have a different kind of lifestyle," Gifford continued. "They can afford it."
"I have a little farm in Tennessee as well as my home there, and I live next to big, big, big stars who have like 15,000 acres," she added. "I've got 10 little acres. I'm so happy there."
After moving to Franklin, which is on the outskirts of Nashville, the former "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" host renovated her Tennessee farm to become a French-inspired farm and expanded on the property. Gifford previously told City Life magazine that she named the farm "Orval" after the small town outside of Paris where she was conceived.
WATCH: Kathie Lee Gifford says stars are fleeing Hollywood because 'it's unfulfilling'
While speaking with Fox News Digital, Gifford shared that her farm is a tribute to her late parents, Aaron and Joan Epstein. "The God of the Way" author explained that she hopes her descendants will learn about her parents through the farm, and she plans to tell Aaron and Joan's story in a future book.
"I'm the only one who has a French farm in Tennessee because I did the whole thing as an homage to my mother and father, who made me in a converted barn in a little village outside of Paris a long, long time ago," Gifford said. "And I want my children and grandchildren and their grandchildren to know about them."
"That will be the last book I write," she continued. "It's going to be about my mom and dad and what they did. And each one of them would have been a Dickens novel on their own — saddest, saddest experiences in life. And they're two people that should have never even made it to 21. But they found each other and they found Jesus. And the last part of their life was just unbelievable."
Prior to relocating to Franklin, Gifford lived in Greenwich for more than a decade, where she raised her two children, Cody, 35, and Cassidy, 31, and remained by the side of her husband of nearly 30 years, NFL legend Frank Gifford, until he died in August 2015 at age 84.
During a 2019 interview with The Tennessean, Gifford reflected on why she decided to leave her home in Greenwich for Tennessee.
"I moved here because I was dying of loneliness," she admitted.
Gifford recalled how her circumstances had changed after her children left home and she lost her husband. She told the outlet that her home no longer felt like a safe haven for her and all she was left with was an empty house.
"That huge, beautiful, memory-filled home was like a morgue to me," Gifford said. "Here's the bad news — I'm a widow, an orphan, and an empty nester. The good news is, I have the freedom of a widow, an orphan and an empty nester."
WATCH: Kathie Lee Gifford shares why her son living at her Connecticut home is a 'joyful thing'
While Gifford lives full time in Franklin, she told Fox News Digital that she still owns her house in Greenwich. "The Baxters" actress explained that her son Cody and his wife, Erika, who he married in 2020, currently live at the house. Gifford expressed her admiration for Cody, who spearheaded a remodel of his family home.
"My son is a smart one," Gifford said. "He moved in with his wife. Actually, they weren't even married then, but they moved into my house. They left here, Santa Monica, to get away from COVID and live at our house where he grew up. And they're still there. And it's wonderful because our house was over 100 years old, and it was right on the water, and it was falling into the sea," Gifford said.
"And my son has done an unbelievable job," she continued. "I mean, it looks brand new. It's cost me a fortune, but it's been worth it. And I'm happy that they're there. You know how much joy it brings me to see his little boys and my son throwing the football around the same yard that Frank used to throw the football around in. They're swimming in the same pool, playing on the tennis court, running, just everything."
"It's déjà vu and it's just a joyful thing," Gifford added. "And my son is an unbelievable husband and father, and his wife looks like Elizabeth Taylor, and she's an incredible, incredible mother. And my daughter lives near me in Tennessee, and she is about to pop with her second baby, and she married a wonderful guy."
"I know I've had great sadness in my life when I lost somebody that I love very much. But I know that I'm gonna see him again. I know exactly where they are."
Gifford spoke with Fox News Digital while attending QVC's TikTok Super Brand Day at the Santa Monica Post Office in Santa Monica, California. The event celebrated the second year of QVC's "Age of Possibility" platform, which is geared toward women over 50.
The TV personality is an ambassador for QVC's Quintessential 50, a "group of amazing women 50+ who embrace the Age of Possibility and are helping to amplify our mission," per the shopping network's website.
In addition to Gifford, QVC's TikTok Super Brand Day was also attended by other Q50 ambassadors, including Gifford's former "Today" co-host Hoda Kotb, philanthropist Kathy Hilton and "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum Jennie Garth. While attending the event, Gifford and Kotb, who co-hosted "Today" for 11 years, reunited on the red carpet.
During her interview with Fox News Digital, Gifford recalled how she came to work with QVC.
WATCH: Kathie Lee Gifford recalls how she began working with QVC
"They called me years ago when I was on with Regis and asked me to do a product line for them," she said. "So I came out with some sort of a beauty product, I think it was a skin cream and a really, really good one. And they said, 'Now you know, you might have to stay there and come back every 20 minutes or every couple hours and do it in the middle of the night, and I said, 'OK, let's see how it goes.'"
"We sold out," Gifford recalled. "We sold $5 million worth of it in five minutes. I went, 'Oh.'"
"Now that didn't happen every time I went to do QVC, but it was a nice big step first," she added with a smile.
Since then, Gifford said she has worked with QVC on and off over the years.
"They're an amazing organization," she said. "Technically, they're superb and nice, nice, nice people. And you know me, I don't hang out with mean ones. I do not do it."