How Howard Stern and Kathie Lee Gifford Ended Their Decades-Long Feud

It goes without saying that Howard Stern has mellowed considerably in recent years, compared to the peak of the so-called shock jock’s fame when he would often become embroiled in public feuds. One of Stern’s frequent targets was Kathie Lee Gifford, who he would often bash on-air. But while promoting her new book, I Want to Matter: Your Life Is Too Short and Too Precious to Waste, the 70-year-old revealed how Stern finally made amends, years later.

The apparently one-sided feud came to a head in 1995 when Gifford had been chosen to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl XXIX. As she began to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Gifford heard booing, and later found out that Stern had instructed his listeners to jeer at her. Because she had never met Stern or listened to the show, she would later describe the incident as “completely surreal.”

However, nearly two decades later, in 2012, Stern stopped by Today, where Gifford co-hosted the fourth hour alongside Hoda Kotb, to announce he was joining America’s Got Talent as a judge. And although precautions had been taken so the two wouldn’t cross paths, she took it upon herself to introduce herself to him, as she told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Tuesday.

“The Lord… said, ‘Kathie, go down and say hello to him, and wish him well with the show,'” Gifford recalled. “And I said, ‘OK Lord.’ I got up out of my hair and makeup [room]. Those girls had been told, ‘Don’t let Kathie go anywhere near the studio.’ I couldn’t care less. I go downstairs. They go, ‘Where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m going to go say hello to Howard.'”

“He’s very, very tall, and I was in my little flats coming in from Connecticut,” she continued. “There were so many people that day because he brings quite the entourage … I said, ‘Hey, it’s Kathie Lee.’ I thought it was about time. I said, ‘I want to wish you all the best with the new show.’ I got up, went back, sat down in the makeup room. They’d said, ‘Why’d you do that?’ I said, ‘God told me to.'”

Gifford then continued about her day and thought nothing more of the encounter. However, later that day she received a phone call with no caller ID and knew in her gut that it was Stern reaching out.

“We’re having dinner, and I see the no-caller ID,” she explained. “I said, ‘That’s him.’ My husband and son did not want me to take that call. He was horrible to me and horrendous to my entire family … I’d never met the man, never until that day, never listened to his show or anything like that. I [heard] he said certain things about me. I’d go, ‘Why? I don’t even know the man.'”

Gifford didn’t answer the call but says that Stern left her an apologetic voicemail. “I can’t even use the language that he used,” she said. “It was a lot of F-words, but he was saying, ‘I can’t believe how nice you were to me. I’ve been so rude to you and you were so nice. I just need to apologize to you. Please call me.'”

Although she wasn’t able to call him, back, she details that eventually the two were able to have a private conversation in which Stern asked her to forgive him.

“I said, ‘I’m really happy for you that you’re asking for forgiveness, because anytime we hurt somebody in life, it’s important to ask for forgiveness,'” Gifford said. “’But I just want you to know that I forgave you 30 years ago.’ He goes, ‘What?’ I said, ‘I forgave you 30 years ago, and I’ve been praying for you every day since. And it’s the truth. He goes, ‘Oh my God.’ I said, ‘Would you like to come to dinner sometime?’ He goes, ‘You’d have me at your house?’ I said, ‘Of course.'”

It’s unclear whether Stern ever took her up on her dinner invitation, but it seems safe to say that the beef was officially squashed after that.

“He’s a very odd duck,” Gifford added. “But then I saw him a couple of times over at Sirius, and we were fine. I can get along with a rock.”