Kathie: All I ever wanted to be my entire life was to be an actress and a singer. I remember as a little child,
my earliest memories... I think I came out of the womb with a pratfall. [Kathie Lee Gifford] I wrote a letter to Walt Disney
when I was like six years old, and I said "I know you love Annette Funicello, and I know you love Hayley Mills,
but you really need to meet me." I was a very audacious little girl,
and I said, "I'm known for my expressions." I was already me then,
I was already me. I just had a lifetime ahead to discover how to express it. [Act One: Adventure of a Lifetime] I was born in Paris, France, but I grew up in Maryland. My dad had three different jobs,
my mom sold eggs door-to-door, so it's not as if I grew up with privilege, but I was privileged to have parents like I had. I hated it when my mother called me in to do homework, or my father came to find me because I was putting on shows. Years later, as a 12-year-old girl, I walked into a movie theater to see a movie called "The Restless Ones." It was the first movie that the Billy Graham organization had put out, and I remember when the movie was over, there was a sort of an altar call, "Would anybody like to come forward
and give their life to Jesus?" And I couldn't get up fast enough. My brother says, "Whoah whoah whoah you're not going down." And I said, "You'd better take me, you better go with me, because I'm going down there. I'm going down that aisle." It was the greatest decision I ever made in my entire life. I've been working in the entertainment field since I was ten years old. to be a young woman in that business is brutal because of the rejection,
and it's nonstop, and it's boom boom boom. I got ripped one time on an audition for Charlie's Angels, and I'm sitting there and the casting agent goes, "Well, let me just tell you right now
why you're not right for Charlie's Angels." I go "okay," And she goes "We're looking for a pretty girl." And then she said "And a this and a that and a--" It was like getting beat, just hit them to the left, hit them to the right. As I was walking out the door,
I leaned back in and I went, "When you're casting a cartoon, let me know!" and I left laughing. God made me that way. Spotlights are tough because some people die under them. I came to life under one. I remember I went to a school once
that I was very very unhappy in, because I felt like I was trying to be cookie-cutter. They were trying to make all of us look alike, sound alike, think alike, And I said that's the exact opposite of what God wants us to do. God wants us to sing our own song, write our own story, put on our own show. That's the joy of living. I may admire another person, but I don't want to be that person and miss out on being me. That's the adventure of a lifetime. [Act Two: Love & Loss] I've been in the desert as many times
as I've been on a mountaintop, but I've learned my deepest lessons from the deserts, for sure. I was married for a short time when I was quite young. It was a huge mistake, tremendously unhappy time in my life, and I thought I'd never ever find joy in a marriage. I came to New York. While I was in New York,
I met a man named Frank Gifford. After a four-year friendship,
we fell in love. And from that 29-year-old marriage,
I got the two greatest gifts I've ever known in my whole life, my son Cody and my daughter Cassidy. God took something horrible in my life and wove it into something beyond-belief beautiful. Other times I was accused of ugly things that were not true, that I ran sweatshops for God's sake. All I've ever done in my entire life is
been an advocate for children. It was a very dark dark dark period for me. But you know what happened from that? God put me to work. So what God did was he said,
"Okay Kathie, it's unjust what you've been accused of, but why don't you get your eyes off you for a minute, and look at the unjust conditions around the world. Maybe you didn't cause it, but people are doing that to other human beings, and you need to care about it." We got laws changed, because I stayed in the fight with God's help, and he gave me everything I needed to fight that fight. My husband was unfaithful to me
during a brief time in our marriage. It was devastating to me,
but I was able to stay in my marriage, and have God heal it. And as a result, I've heard from hundreds of thousands of people since then who got courage from that, courage to forgive their husbands or their wives, courage to keep their families together. Not everybody does, but I've heard from hundreds of thousands of people through the years who did. On a beautiful Sunday morning,
I found my husband passed on to heaven. The look on my husband's face was this, and from that moment on I had the peace that passes all understanding. He saw Jesus and Jesus took his breath away. My son then came and helped me try to revive him. He had the same peace. We've all had it since. We've had our sad moments of missing him, but you don't find somebody under those cirucmstances and find yourself rejoicing even as you're holding your dead,
that's what they are, your dead loved one. I was rejoicing. My tears were tears of joy. And I couldn't bear to think about
"Oh I lost, woe is me, I'm a widow." No, I'm so grateful that Frank is
exactly where he's supposed to be. My biggest struggle at this point in my life is loneliness. I've lost my parents, my husband is gone now, and my children live far away from me. I still live in the same big house where we made a gazillion million memories, and there are times when I am overwhelmed by loneliness. But I've discovered that if I just keep thinking about what I've lost, I don't pay any attention to what I still have. I don't want to live my life in hopelessness. I've been there. That's a town I've been to, hopelessness. [Act Three: Non-Negotiable] I went to some fundraiser years ago,
and I felt this tapping on my back, and I turned around and it was Paul Newman, and he gets down on one knee and he takes my hand in both of his,
and he kisses it and then he looks up at me with those unbelievable blue eyes,
and I went "OK, now I can die." And he sort of had a little trouble getting up, because he was 80 years old at that point. And he goes, Kathie, I'm 80-some years old, old and I still have a pulse." And I remember going to sleep that night and saying, "You know what? Every single day if I wake up and I have a pulse, I have a purpose." We live in a copycat world. You're supposed to be you, you uniquely. That's the first letter of unique, U! And that brings a smile to God's face,
because he didn't make a mistake with you. Life does beat you down, loss beats you down, hardship takes its toll, illness destroys your body. And Jesus said "It's not going to be easy." He said "In this world you will have trouble, but rejoice, take heart, I have overcome more. And because I have, I will empower you to overcome your world. My joy is non-negotiable." I tell you that's the beginning of bliss in life. You understand where your joy comes from and then you protect it with everything in you. I want to be purposeful every day of my life, every moment of it. I'm also getting too old to waste any of it. God is not the enemy of joy. He is the creator of joy. We got a lot to rejoice about. You want to fly? You want to soar? You want to dream big dreams and see them come true? You need to partner with the right person. Only Jesus. Only Jesus. I am Kathie Lee Gifford,
and I am second.
