Frank Gifford most stupid thing
The contrite ex-gridiron great apologized for the pain he caused his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, and said their marriage is "much stronger" now.
"I was very foolish, very stupid, and fortunately I was married to a wonderful woman who knew that she was commanded to forgive me," Gifford said on CNN's "Larry King Live."
But he said the Bible did not command his wife to forget his highly publicized transgression.
Much of the media storm was driven by the fact that Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of the syndicated "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee" had paraded her marriage on TV and in books as the nation's most perfect union.
Gifford said the couple has patched up their once-storybook union. "We have a love affair," he said.
Gifford said he promised her: "Kathie, I will spend the rest of my life trying to be the man you thought I was."
His voice quavering, Gifford said, "I just about lost the most important thing in my life, and that is a woman I love very much and my two kids."
Gifford said he sympathizes with the First Family and their public struggle with President Clinton's adultery.
"I feel so deeply for that family, having gone through what I've gone through," Gifford said. "Why would we continue to hurt him and Hillary and Chelsea? Why don't we just give this up?"
Though admitting he was to blame, Gifford slammed the Globe supermarket tabloid for paying ex-stewardess Suzen Johnson, who was having an affair with the long-time Monday Night Football broadcaster, to lure Gifford to a hotel room in May 1997, where he could be filmed embracing her.
"This was a moneymaking operation," Gifford said, adding that he was confident the muckrakers would be punished. "I think we all know that their time will come," he said. "There is a Judgment Day."
Gifford, who now hosts the Monday night pre-game show, said he found solace in his faith during the tribulations that followed his adultery.
"You might call it foxhole Christianity, but I really found the God I thought I knew," he said. "What happened to me was an amazing spiritual experience that has made me stronger."
Gifford also attacked the media for tarring his wife as a sweatshop queen after it was learned the Wal-Mart clothing line she endorsed was sewn by poorly paid immigrants in a Manhattan sweatshop.
Source: nydailynews
