Kathie Lee Gifford was 22 when she met Paul Johnson, then 29, at a Los Angeles Bible study. After several years of dating, they finally tied the knot in 1976. Due to their mutual religious convictions, both had saved their virginity for their wedding night. When the time came, Gifford was ready for action — Johnson, not so much. As she soon discovered, she and her husband simply didn’t click in the bedroom — a factor in their relationship that never really changed.
“[The marriage] was a real disappointment to me, as I know it was for Paul,” she told People. “We all want to love and be loved, and when it doesn’t happen, it’s devastating.”
That lack of sexual compatibility left her feeling rejected and inadequate. After six painful years, they divorced. In a subsequent interview with People, she admitted that Johnson was her spouse in name only. “I don’t even like to call him my husband because he wasn’t in the truest sense of the word,” she recalled. Reflecting on the relief she felt after divorcing, she also learned a major life lesson from her first marriage. “I realized, you know what, we can make all the vows we want in life, but if both people don’t want the same thing, it’s not going to work out,” she declared.
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