Kathie Lee Spreads Herself Too Thin

For soon-to-be-former talk-show host Kathie Lee Gifford, the old adage that you can never be too rich or too thin is all too true.

"I love being this thin," Gifford tells Ladies' Home Journal. "I have no eating disorder problems; I eat tons. But now I've realized the value of sweat. I'm a size two, but I'm all muscle now. And I've grown my hair longer. I'm doing everything at 46 that you're not supposed to do, pretending I'm 20."

Gifford, who announced a few weeks back that she is leaving Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee, says the show has been "very financially rewarding." But Gifford explains she's now lacking what every good morning host needs: perkiness. "I stopped being perky so many years ago. It's not possible to be perky when you're fighting sweatshops and cleaning up baby barf and trying to heal your marriage and be funny every morning."

Regarding her relationship with her husband, Frank, Gifford justifies his 1997 tryst with a stewardess by saying, "Someone who consciously and habitually hurts their marriage is different than someone being set up by a tabloid to destroy their family. I would never tolerate [the former] in my life. Would I ever want to go through it again? Never. And I will not go through it again. Frank knows that I won't."

As for the harsh public scrutiny of her life, Gifford concedes, "I know I've made mistakes and I'm hardly Mother Teresa. But I ain't Hannibal Lecter, either."