Sex for Kathie Lee

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/16/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

How did Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford get through the "horrendous, devastating" pain of his highly publicized 1997 sex scandal with flight attendant Suzen Johnson? With sex. "Because each time you make love," Gifford, 46, reveals in the new issue of PEOPLE, "that person feels forgiven and you feel restored and loved again." Despite her forgiveness of wandering hubby Frank, 69, Kathie Lee admits her "marriage will probably never be the same." Among Kathie Lee's other revelations in the PEOPLE interview: after learning of Frank's tryst, she considered moving out on Frank for good, but then reconsidered; Frank initially lied to her about his extra-marital affair and claimed it never happened; the couple pulled off an elaborate charade to prevent their children, Cody and Cassidy, from knowing that anything was wrong. "They never saw us argue," says Kathie Lee, "never saw us sleep in separate rooms. They never saw Daddy leave."