Throughout the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Kathy Griffin’s comedy career was steadily rising. But in 2017, one photo nearly ended it all.
The actress and comedian, who grew up in Illinois, began rising to fame in 1996 as she performed stand-up comedy and starred in NBC’s hit sitcom Suddenly Susan. In June 2013, she was given the Guinness World Record title for most stand-up specials by a comedian, which she appears to still hold.
But in 2017, Griffin posted a photo holding a Halloween mask of President Donald Trump, in which the addition of poured-on ketchup made it appear as though he had a severed head. The viral image sparked a nationwide controversy and nearly ended her career, though she’s since been working toward her comeback.
“I’m never going to be the biggest star, but I got back up,” she told PEOPLE in July 2019. “I just want to make a living and make people laugh.”
So, where is Kathy Griffin now? Here’s everything to know about the comedian’s life, nearly eight years after her Trump photo scandal pushed her out of the spotlight.
What is Kathy Griffin known for?
Griffin made a name for herself in 1996 as a stand-up comedian and as an actress who portrayed Vicki Groener on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan.
She continued rising to fame with her Emmy-winning reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, which aired on Bravo from 2005 to 2010. As of September 2024, the Guinness World Record holder had 21 comedy specials, per The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2017, she made headlines when she found herself at the center of a controversy after a photo of her posing with a Halloween mask of President Donald Trump with ketchup poured on it to resemble blood went viral. She later explained on X that the image — which looked like Trump with a severed head — was inspired by his “sexist comments to Don Lemon about Megyn Kelly from the 2015 campaign.”
“The mask photo was meant to be a play on those sexist comments about Megyn… ‘blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,’ ” she wrote. “FYI, I am no Megyn Kelly fan, she has made horrible racist remarks, but there’s no doubt Trump’s comments about her were sexist.”
The viral photo became a nationwide controversy, and even elicited a response from Trump himself. It also led to a larger investigation by the government, which placed her on the no-fly list and had FBI authorities visit her home.
What happened to Kathy Griffin in the aftermath of the Trump photo scandal?
Griffin’s career faced significant repercussions after the Trump photo scandal, including losing endorsement deals, a comedy tour and a long-standing gig as the co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper, who still leads the show today.
“I wasn’t canceled,” she told The New York Times in January 2022. “I was erased.”
She also began receiving death threats, as did her family, including her 97-year-old mom Maggie and her late sister Joyce, who was in hospice care for end-stage cancer at the time.
“I felt guilty, like I brought this on,” she told PEOPLE in July 2019. “I didn’t mean to, but I still brought this inadvertently into their lives at such a difficult time, especially my sister.”
She went on to chronicle how the controversial image changed her life in a concert documentary — titled Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story — which premiered in theaters in 2019.
Is Kathy Griffin still doing comedy?
After a six-year hiatus, Griffin returned to the stage in 2023 and put on a solo show at The Mirage in Las Vegas — and in June, told PEOPLE she was “absolutely” ready.
“It’s actually hard to sell tickets to Vegas, because it’s a very last-minute town,” she said of the event. “And you know, that’s real. Like money talks, b——- walks. So I’m hoping that other buyers see my ticket sales and go, ‘Hey, she’s not controversial anymore.’ ”
Griffin added, “I am coming out of my cancellation.”
In 2024, she went on the road for a tour — titled Kathy Griffin: My Life On The PTSD-List — across the United States and Canada.
Griffin has also been taking her comedic skills to social media more frequently, and in June 2025, wrote on Instagram that she was “now the content queen.”
Where is Kathy Griffin now?
In recent years, Griffin has opened up about dealing with several health issues. Following her stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis in August 2021, Griffin underwent surgery and “everything went well,” though it left her with a paralyzed left vocal cord.
In the past few years, she has undergone a series of surgeries to repair her vocal cords, explaining to PEOPLE in June 2023 that she has to have the procedure done every six months “because your body absorbs the substance.”
On top of her cancer and precancerous scares, she shared in an April 2023 TikTok video that she had been diagnosed with “complex PTSD.”
“Let’s talk about PTSD. Never talked about it publicly,” Griffin said. “You can laugh or whatever, but I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD, and it’s called an extreme case.”
The comedian later told PEOPLE she believes the fallout from the Trump photo scandal contributed to the PTSD diagnosis.
As for her personal life, Griffin split from her husband Randy Bick in December 2023 after nearly four years of marriage. The former couple finalized their divorce in January 2025. While she hasn’t begun publicly dating anyone new, the comedian is dipping her toes back into the dating scene — and even made a pitch to be the next lead on The Golden Bachelorette.
After the scandal and a number of health issues, Griffin told PEOPLE that she is at a different place in her life now.
“I feel like I figuratively lost my comedic voice because of the Trump photo scandal, I literally lost my voice due to the cancer surgery and now I finally have my voice back,” Griffin said. “I’m a grateful, naughty comedian again!”