Kathie Lee Gifford says that she was shocked when NBC asked her to return to TV at age 55 in 2008 (the move was FIRST reported by FTVLive).

“I was flattered and deeply grateful, but I was 55 at the time and I just thought, ‘Wow, how times have changed. Somebody was interested in a post-menopausal woman — and a has-been at that.’”

Gifford said that she had no thoughts of returning to TV. 

“I was actively pursuing not coming back to TV,” the former Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee cohost explained. “I thought that I had done the best 15 years of television I could possibly do with Regis — we changed the face of daytime television and we became a phenomenon at the time — and when I left in 2000, it was to follow interests I hadn’t had the time for.”

Gifford says that she was at lunch when Today anchor Natalie Morales, producer Amy Rosenblum and then-Dateline correspondent Hoda Kotb interrupted it and begged her to join the Today show.

She did and has been on NBC's Today for 8 years and loving it. 

H/T US Magazine