Kathie Lee Gifford Says God Spoke to Her During Final Lunch With Regis Philbin: ‘I Know His Voice’

When Kathie Lee Gifford met her former cohost and friend Regis Philbin for lunch two weeks before his death at the age of 88 in 2020, she knew it would be the last time she would ever see him.

The 72-year-old, who hosted Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee from 1985–2000 and Today from 2008–2019, heard God’s voice as Philbin “got out of the car to come into my house,” she told People. “[The Lord] said, ‘This is the last time you’re gonna see him.’”

Their lunch that day lasted for three hours, said the author of the new biblical fiction book Nero and Paul. “I had everything he loved made for him that day. And we laughed, oh, we laughed our butts off.”

Two weeks later, Gifford was traveling when she heard God speak to her again. “I was back in [the South] and had writing sessions and recording sessions and was always busy, but then one morning I woke up, and the Lord told me very clearly—I don’t hear him, but I know his voice, if that makes any sense—and he said, ‘Get on a plane and go home.’”

“I didn’t know why he said it, but I got on a plane, and no sooner had I landed than I turned my phone back on and there was a message from a dear friend who said, ‘I’m so sorry about your friend Regis.’ And I knew [he was dead].”

Though they hosted a show together for 15 years, Gifford said her friendship with Philbin grew stronger after she left Live! “I saw him a lot,” she revealed. “We became much closer friends even as the years went on, after I left. We lived very close to each other in Greenwich, [Connecticut].” (Gifford moved to Tennessee in 2019, but traveled back to the Northeast often.)

After his death, Gifford spent time with his wife Joy Philbin, who told her, “‘Kathie, the last time I heard Regis laugh was with you.’”