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Inside Kathy Griffin’s Life Today

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One photo with a fake severed head turned Kathy Griffin into a federal case and, a year later, into a sold-out world tour.

Kathy Griffin’s May 2017 photo shoot with photographer Tyler Shields — in which she posed holding a blood-splattered, decapitated mask of Donald Trump — set off one of the fastest, most total career collapses in recent entertainment history. By June 2018, Griffin had been fired, blacklisted, investigated by the Secret Service, and dropped by a longtime friend, only to claw her way back with a stand-up tour that sold out venues from Carnegie Hall to Australia. Her story since that shoot is a case study in how quickly Hollywood can turn on a person, and how stubbornly some people refuse to stay down.

• The photo triggered a Secret Service investigation and got Griffin placed on the federal No Fly List and Interpol watch lists during international travel.
• CNN fired her from her decade-long New Year’s Eve co-hosting gig with Anderson Cooper, Squatty Potty cut her sponsorship deal, and the remainder of her stand-up tour was canceled outright.
• Griffin later rescinded her initial apology, cut ties with Cooper after he called the image “disgusting and completely inappropriate,” and rebuilt her career through the “Laugh Your Head Off” world tour, which sold out Carnegie Hall along with dates across Europe, Australia, and Asia.

The Photo That Detonated Her Career

The image itself was simple and grotesque: Griffin, in a black outfit, holding what appeared to be Trump’s severed, bloodied head. It was meant as shock-comedy in the Tyler Shields tradition, but the reaction was immediate and bipartisan. President Trump himself weighed in on Twitter, and the backlash moved from social media into federal law enforcement territory within days, as the Secret Service opened an investigation into the image.

What followed wasn’t just online outrage — it was a real, documented paper trail. Griffin found herself on the federal No Fly List and flagged on Interpol watch lists whenever she traveled internationally, restrictions she has said followed her for months after the photo went public.

The Fallout: CNN, Cooper, and the No Fly List

The professional consequences landed fast. CNN terminated her role co-hosting the network’s New Year’s Eve broadcast alongside Anderson Cooper, a gig she’d held for a decade. Squatty Potty ended its endorsement deal with her, and the remaining dates on her national stand-up tour were scrapped as venues and promoters backed away.

The most personal casualty was her friendship with Cooper. After he publicly described the photo as “disgusting and completely inappropriate,” Griffin severed the relationship entirely — a split that, unlike the corporate fallout, never got patched up. It’s the kind of abrupt, public falling-out that shows up again and again once careers and reputations get tangled up in a single controversial moment, similar to other celebrity friendships that curdled into open feuds once the cameras and headlines got involved.

No Fly List. Interpol watch list. Secret Service interview. All from one photo shoot.

Rescinding the Apology

Griffin initially apologized for the image, but months later she walked that apology back, arguing publicly that the response had been wildly disproportionate to what she’d done and insisting she wouldn’t be intimidated into staying quiet. It marked a turning point — from contrition to defiance — and it set the tone for how she’d handle the rest of 2017 and 2018, using her own ordeal as the backbone of new material rather than something to bury. Her arc mirrors a pattern seen among plenty of public figures who’ve had a single online moment threaten to define them, the same territory covered in stories about actors whose careers took a hit over social media fallout.

The Laugh Your Head Off Comeback

By mid-2018, Griffin had turned the entire saga into the spine of her “Laugh Your Head Off” world tour, which sold out international dates across Europe, Australia, and Asia, plus U.S. stops including a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in New York. Onstage, she walked audiences through her federal interrogation, described death threats and sustained online harassment she says she survived, and took direct aim at Trump, his family, and former allies who distanced themselves from her.

The tour’s success is the clearest evidence that Griffin’s audience never fully left; if anything, the controversy gave her new material and a sharper edge that packed houses on three continents.

Standing With Stormy Daniels

Griffin also used this period to align herself publicly with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, in their legal fight against Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. In May 2018, Griffin attended Daniels’ federal court hearing in Los Angeles in person, a show of solidarity that put her back in the same political crosshairs that started the whole saga a year earlier — this time by choice.

Whatever happens next in the Daniels-Cohen legal fight, Griffin’s already shown up in the courtroom gallery once and made her position clear — and with sold-out dates still stacking up on the “Laugh Your Head Off” tour, she’s not exactly signaling she plans to go quiet about any of it.