NEED TO KNOW
Kathy Griffin is opening up about her divorce from ex-husband Randy Bick.
The comedian, 64, filed for divorce from the marketing executive after three years of marriage in 2023, and they finalized their divorce in January.
“My divorce took me out,” Griffin tells PEOPLE. “I’m not going to lie. Some people are like, ‘I was glad I got rid of them, and I’ve never felt better.’ I was down for the count. It was harder than cancer.”
Griffin was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer two years prior to her divorce. During surgery to have half of her left lung removed, Griffin says her left vocal cord was permanently paralyzed by an intubation tube. Griffin — who said she was cancer-free months after her lung surgery — then had to have vocal cord surgery to get her voice back.
After her divorce, Griffin says she went to friend Sharon Stone’s house, and “she consoled me.” She touches on the “funny elements” of that experience in her new comedy special, My Life on the PTSD List, streaming on YouTube.
“It’s not just me going on about having my heart broken,” she says.
Along with the divorce and her cancer diagnosis, Griffin talks in her special about going through a pill addiction and a suicide attempt in the eight years since the firestorm of controversy that followed the infamous 2017 photoshoot depicting her holding President Donald Trump’s severed head.
“I talk about some heavy stuff, but I got so much feedback from my audiences saying, ‘I’m glad you went there,’” she says. “I have had a bit of a deluge of difficulties since the Trump photo, but one thing after another taught me, okay, you may not see the comedy when you’re living it, but at some point, it will be funny. There’s comedy in everything.”
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Since her split from Bick, Griffin has spent three weeks dabbling on dating apps, but she’s since taken herself off them.
“I went on a date with a guy who told me if he wanted to, he could kill me with his thumb in under two seconds,” she says. “Welcome to dating over 60.”
Dating might be a struggle, but Griffin — who kicks off her new comedy tour, New Face, New Tour on Nov. 8 in Las Vegas — is looking forward to officially becoming a senior citizen when she turns 65 on Nov. 4.
“You don’t know how excited I am,” she says. “I’m going to blame everything on my age, and I’ll do it in a fake English accent as well. I want to be on every discount list.”
