Jim Brickman with Special Guest Leeza Gibbons
Jim Brickman talks with host, actress and friend Leeza Gibbons this Father’s Day about the important discussion of caring for aging parents.
Read Below for Part 1 of Leeza’s Interview
Jim Brickman: It’s Father’s Day weekend and joining us to talk about Dad and caring for parents as they get older is actress, host and my friend Leeza Gibbons. Leeza I have not talked with you in so long, so great having you on the show this weekend.
Leeza Gibbons: I know, forever and a day right?!
Jim Brickman: How are you? You still live in LA, right?
Leeza Gibbons: I do. Where’s home base for you now?
JB: So I moved back to Cleveland. Kind of along the lines of what we’re talking about today. I moved back to my hometown because both my parents were having some health issues – especially my dad – and I felt like I wanted to be closer to them, so this topic is something that is near and dear to my heart as well.
LG: You know it effects virtually everyone we know and if it’s someone who hasn’t been effected yet, it’s kind of the reality of ok, well you’re either going to be helping in this capacity or you yourself is going to end up needing something. And we get to be there for each other, that’s the real humanity isn’t it?
JB: Absolutely. I mean I wouldn’t have traded the couple years I had with my dad before he passed away for anything. I know this is a really important thing to you because of your personal experience talking about your aging parents and the choices that you made.
LG: When my mom died of Alzheimer’s disease – and we lost her in ’08 – my dad was living alone in the house that they shared, a house too big for him on the lake. He likes to go out fishing, by himself and I’m the middle kid, so I kind of worry and I’m out in LA and he’s in South Carolina, and I’m the one who negotiates. I’ve got the big brother and the little sister, and we kids decided that we would feel better about dad living alone – we didn’t want to strip his independence – but we thought, ‘Great why don’t you get a medical alert system.’ And he’s like ‘Oh I don’t need that, come on honey, I don’t need that.’
And then I gave it to him as a gift, knowing that he wasn’t going to not use it because it was a gift. So we got him a Philips Lifeline and sure enough he had a heart attack, hit the floor coming back from the bathroom, couldn’t reach the phone. Had he not had it on we wouldn’t have my dad.
How do you Talk with your Aging Parent about Getting Older? Leeza Gibbons Shares her Advice Below
Listen to Part 2 of Leeza Gibbon’s interview with Jim Brickman below
Click Here to Learn More about Leeza Gibbon’s Partnership with Philips Lifeline
More on Leeza Gibbons
Emmy Award winner Leeza Gibbons is one of the most well‐known pop‐culture icons on the air. In addition to her impressive background in the field of entertainment and news media, Leeza is an instrumental advocate for healthcare, 
wellness, and caregiving. She is also a wife, mother, businesswoman, EMMY award winner and a New York Times bestselling author.
The spectrum of Leeza’s career in entertainment and news media is diverse and impressive. Her on‐camera hosting dominance in the entertainment‐news and talk‐show arenas, ranges from the most popular entertainment news show in history, Entertainment Tonight, to her award‐winning daytime talk show, Leeza.
More recently, in 2013, Leeza published her first NY Times Bestseller, Take 2, a personal growth guide designed to help people recreate themselves and hit the reset button on their lives.
Later that year, Leeza won the 2013 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host for the PBS show ‘My Generation’.
This past spring, Leeza was crowned the winner of NBC’s ‘Celebrity Apprentice’. Having raised over $700,000 for her foundation, Leeza became the 2nd woman ever to win the long-standing competition show. This season also reignited the storied franchise for NBC as the show delivered their highest overall ratings in nearly 5 years.
Recognized as a social entrepreneur, Leeza has become one of the leading voices for issues facing family caregivers. When her mother and grandmother were struggling with Alzheimer’s disease, she created what she wished she and her family had and started the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation. Her training as a journalist united with her compassion and business savvy when she opened the foundation’s signature programs Leeza’s Place and Leeza’s Care Connection, offering free services for family caregivers encouraging them to call on their courage and summon their strength for the long journey ahead.
Over the years, Leeza has become known as a trusted girlfriend, valued confidante, and source of inspiration and information, empowering women to show up for their lives with confidence and pride. Whether it’s her scrapbook line honoring the value of memories, her jewelry collection to symbolize transformation, or her cosmetic products to reveal inner and outer beauty, Leeza develops programs and products to help women claim their strength and rewrite the story of their lives.
Recognizability, Relatability and Reputation… that and more is what you get with Leeza’s as she uplifts, empowers and motivates audiences and viewers to get more out of life and business.
Leeza currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Steven Fenton. She has three children… daughter Leksi and sons Troy and Nate.
Websites: www.leezagibbons.com and www.leezascareconnection.org.
