Kathie Lee Gifford was hospitalized after a fall while recovering from her recent hip replacement surgery, she reveals exclusively to PEOPLE.
The former Today co-host, 70, fractured her pelvis in two places and spent over a week in the hospital undergoing physical therapy.
Gifford explained that she had “moved 300 books by myself” during book signings in Nashville, which weakened her body. “It’s my own fault,” she admitted.
The following day, a friend came by to pick her up. In her haste to answer the door, Gifford tripped.
“It didn’t take much, because I was weak in that spot,” Gifford told PEOPLE. “And the next thing you know, I am back in the hospital with a fractured pelvis, the front and the back. That’s more painful than anything I went through with the hip. The pelvis is unbelievably painful. But anyway, here I am.”
Gifford describes her hospital stay as a “humbling experience,” opting to remain there for a full week because she didn’t trust herself to leave earlier.
“You think you know your body, but it changes as you age,” Gifford explains. “I don’t want to think about it, but I have to.”
“It feels like summer for everyone but me,” she remarks. “But that’s OK. I’ll eventually get to my little farm and dip my feet in my salt pool. The Lord is telling me to slow down. I’ve been on the go my whole life. He’s saying, ‘You’ve planted countless roses. Now, take the time to smell them.’”
Earlier this month, Gifford shared with PEOPLE that her hip replacement surgery and recovery had been “one of the most painful experiences” of her life.
“It’s been incredibly tough,” she added.
Gifford needed the surgery due to her active lifestyle. She recalled the surgeon’s words: “You climbed mountains, made movies, performed on stages, never took off your high heels, and kept pushing forward. That’s why you’re experiencing this now.”
Despite the difficult recovery, Gifford has no regrets about her energetic life.
“Would I change anything? No. I was doing what God put me on this earth to do. Every year of it, I was fulfilling His purpose for me,” she reflected.
Despite being hospitalized, Gifford continues to celebrate the release of her new book, *Herod and Mary: The True Story of the Tyrant King and the Mother of the Risen Savior*.
This historical nonfiction work provides “deep insight into how Herod came to power, how corruption and an ancient evil threatened the stability of a nation, and how a teenage Mary was called to navigate these obstacles to bring the Savior, Jesus, our living hope, into the world,” according to an official description.
Gifford shared that the inspiration for the book came during a rabbinical trip to Israel a few years ago, and it was her son Cody, 34, who convinced her that “these are stories that need to be told because people need hope.”
“I don’t know how much time the Lord has me still on this earth, but for whatever time it is, I pray that I would be useful, kind, helpful, and loving to people,” she told PEOPLE. “I am a strong woman, but I’m a woman who for 60 years has been trying to do godly work, trying to do the right thing, trying to love people, and trying to represent the kingdom of God.”
