Kathie Lee Gifford is thankful to Hoda Kotb for getting her through one of the darkest times in her life more than a decade ago: losing her husband, Frank Gifford. "Hoda, it was on your birthday," Kathie Lee, 72, recalled to Kotb, 61, while speaking about Frank's death on the Wednesday, January 21, episode of the "Making Space" podcast. "I wanted you to know before you got off a plane from New Orleans and saw it on social media or something." Kathie Lee remembered, "I said, 'I don't even want to tell her because she's gonna come here.' She's gonna say, 'I've got to go be with her.