Overview
- Gifford detailed her experience in a People cover interview published Tuesday, June 30, saying doctors treated her for a spinal problem for about a year before identifying severe hip disease that required surgery.
- Her medical timeline includes a total hip replacement in 2024, a follow-up hip surgery after a fracture, multiple broken bones from separate falls and cataract surgery for impaired depth perception.
- She told People that the physical pain became so intense she “wanted to die a few times,” and that the chronic pain forced her to withdraw from public life and limited her ability to care for or play with her five young grandchildren.
- Gifford credits stem cell injections, six-days-a-week physical therapy and additional procedures with restoring much of her strength and mobility so she can now be active with her grandchildren again.
- She says decades of physically demanding performance work contributed to her decline, and she is now prioritizing health, family and legacy as she lists her Connecticut home and says she is not dating.