Kathy Griffin's Life After Cancellation, Cancer and Chaos

The comedian has a new special and tour. She tells Us all about her hard-won next chapter

- ERIN STRECKER

To Kathy Griffin’s great surprise, she’s a new award winner. “I'm so used to being a bit of a rebel outsider in Hollywood,” she tells Us of her recent honor from the cancer charity WeSpark. “They gave me an award, and it’s about resilience. I'm laughing because now I’m the face of resilience because I've been through so much s**t that it’s crazy.”

That's an understatement:

Weathering a career-crushing political scandal following a 2017 photo of herself holding the mock decapitated head of President Trump, the last few years have also found Griffin battling lung cancer, prescription drug addiction and even a suicide attempt. It took some time, but Griffin is finding the funny even in that. “Who becomes a junkie at 57?” she asks with a wry smile.

In her surprisingly personal new special, My Life on the PTSD List (now streaming on YouTube), she tackles it all — and previews the kind of stories she'll be sharing when she hits the road for her New Face, New Tour dates beginning Nov. 8. (Yes, that title is a reference to her facelifts, and she’s just as amazed as Us that those became international news!) “I'm trying to be known as a stalwart in comedy; a comedy face that you can count on, and now I’m a comedy face that’s been redone!”

Amidst the life (and cosmetic) rebuilding, Griffin, now 64, is also still downloading fans on the kind of celebrity run-ins that are her bread and butter. No matter what's thrown her way, she'll never stop fighting for her place in comedy. “I may not be your favorite comic, but I've done more specials than any other comedian, male or female, living or dead,” she says. “And damn it, that’s something.”