EXCLUSIVE: Kathie Lee Gifford is outspoken about everything — except telling her kids how to parent

Former TODAY co-host Kathie Lee Gifford divides her time between her kids and grandkids as she recovers from hip surgery, and she still has plenty of pep as she visits her old stomping ground, Studio 1A. She walks through the halls, greeting close friend and former partner-in-crime Hoda Kotb and all of the familiar behind-the-scenes crew members who still make TODAY run.

Between on-camera chats with Hoda about her new book, “Herod and Mary,” Gifford sits down in the green room to catch up with TODAY.com about that “Bubbe” life as a mother of two and grandmother of three.

Gifford is known as someone who freely speaks her mind, but she tries to stand back in order to let her children, Cody and Cassidy, find their own way as parents.

“I have raised them to be full-fledged functioning God-loving, funny, good people. And they don’t need me all the time. They just they just want to live their lives,” she says.

Gifford isn't totally hands-off when it comes to grandmotherly advice, however. She is always just a phone call away.

“I’ve told them, since they turned 21, if you need me, call me,” she says. “And if you want me there, I’ll be there. Other than that, you’re on your own. I raised you; your Daddy and I did right by you.”

Calling her children “phenomenal parents,” Gifford mentions that they are very “hands-on” in a way that she herself couldn’t always be when she was a young mother.

“I had my babies and came back after five weeks to work,” she says about her short maternity leave while filming “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.”

“But they did get to go to Disney World a lot,” she jokes. “So they owe me for that.”

Gifford says that the quick return to work was her choice.

Cody was born in March, and Gifford returned to work quickly so that she’d be present for “sweeps week” in May, a time that was crucial to the success of the show.

“Regis and I did a live show every single day without any writers, no notes, nothing. We never even saw each other before we came out and started talking for 23 minutes live. And so we needed each other,” she explains. They were trying to “build something together” and whenever one of the pair was absent, the show “suffered.”

“I know that sounds terrible,” she says with a laugh. “But it was international news when Cody was was born. I used to be a big deal back then.”

Gifford says that because she had been working her whole life, it felt natural to jump back into work so quickly.

“Would I change anything?” she muses. “No, no it gave them a great life and they’ve seen the world because of it. And they’re passing on everything they’re learning.”

Gifford, who became a grandmother to three boys in the last two years, says that all the babies resemble her late husband, Frank Gifford. The pair were married for 29 years before his death in 2015.

“They all have the Frank Gifford chin,” she says of her kids and grandkids. “It’s unbelievable. They’ve got the cleft. The DNA strain from Frank Gifford is strong. It’s very, very strong. And he was one of the most gorgeous men that God ever made. So of course my children are much more beautiful than anybody else’s. Goes without saying.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com