Interview by Lori Bizzoco. Editorial by Kristin Mattern.
Award-winning host Leeza Gibbons knows heartbreak and learned through experience that sometimes, to find a relationship and love, you have to start over. A successful businesswoman, she climbed from public radio to popular entertainment news broadcast shows like Entertainment Tonight, Hollywood Confidential, and America Now. But while her career powered forward, Gibbon’s romantic life didn’t progress so smoothly. After three celebrity divorces, she decided that it was time to focus on herself. Little did she realize that through this process, she would end up meeting her soul mate and now-husband, Steven Fenton. In our exclusive celebrity interview, the popular host gives some inspiring relationship advice for starting life anew.
Leeza Gibbons Opens Up About Her Relationship and Love
The broadcaster met Fenton on a blind date that she mistakenly believed was a business dinner. “I met him at a restaurant, and two hours later, there was no ask, no agenda… and so I went into my comfort zone of asking questions and made it like an interview. He thought I was kind of rude, I think, and I left abruptly thinking, ‘What was that about?’”
Afterwards, the two didn’t speak for a while but eventually reconnected when Gibbons hired him to work for her. Over time, and after much denial, she realized she had fallen for her genuine, gentle, and loyal team member. “I had found what was missing: being part of a team, being part of a relationship. We really treasure that we are teammates.” But before Gibbons found her happy ending, she made the difficult decision to change her life.
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The journalist came to terms with a life “redo” by “standing emotionally naked in front of a mirror and saying, ‘Wow, look at that — is this the person you want to be?’” She claims that a redo can come at any point in life, no matter your age or who you are. If you find yourself stuck in a life that doesn’t feel like it belongs to you, it’s time for a change. But where do you begin? “You have to drop the dread and banish the blame before you can start any reinvention. Those are the two essentials,” she advises in our exclusive celebrity interview. “It’s not an easy choice, but all choices start with a beginning, and there’s an energy to starting something that can sweep you along to the changes you need to make.”
For the retake on her own life, she used people she admired to become the person she wanted to be. She calls them “pace setters.” Through this positive mindset, Gibbons later had the privilege to meet some of the men and women she looked up to, including Olivia Newton John, who gave her the following advice: “She told me to keep my heart open to love but to walk with the pain of being alone and really re-establish my relationship with myself to become someone who was 100 percent whole. Then, I would attract that kind of person into my life.”
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Gibbons took these words to heart and earlier this year released her first book, Take 2: Your Guide to Creating Happy Endings and New Beginnings which delves even deeper into her experiences and teaches others how to take control of their lives. “We are all on a path of becoming who we are, and the secret to the dance is knowing when to do what,” says the author. She shares that you have to learn to gracefully move from one stage of life to the next and let go of the person you were in the past to be happy now. If it sounds like a balancing act, Gibbons thinks otherwise: “Balance is bogus. We have a high standard for ourselves, but at some point, flexibility and forgiveness — the two f-words — are the ones that are going to give us sanity.”
For those who find themselves entering the dating world after a long hiatus, the celebrity host says to get to know yourself and be real about who you were when you got hurt. “We have to teach people how to treat us. We have to treat ourselves with love, dignity, and respect. When we value who we really are, the rest of the world takes note and mirrors that. Until you think you’re worth the love you’re looking for, it will elude you.”
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Gibbons also enjoys co-hosting America Now with Bill Rancic, who she describes as a “kid brother.” The show aims to empower people, much like she has in other facets of her life. The broadcast gives viewers a snapshot of what’s going on in the often frightening world and provides tools for people to cope. “We send you to our website AmericaNowNews.com, and we put a lot of resources there so you can really take control of your life,” the host explains. “People are so overstimulated today, and everything is moving so darn fast; we want you to feel like you’ve got it going on and can recover.”
In addition to being an author, on-air talent, mother, and wife this inspiring woman is also a philanthropist and created Leeza’s Cure Connection, which works to aid caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s. She founded the nonprofit organization after she was personally touched by the disease. “My mom and grandma both died of Alzheimer’s. The first time that my mom didn’t know my name…there’s just no pierce to your heart that is worse than that. What we do is offer free services to caregivers: the husbands and the wives, the sons and the daughters. It really has been the greatest work I’ve ever been privileged to do.”
For more information on Gibbons, visit her website, http://leezagibbons.com/.
