Kelly RipaRegis Philbin hosted the event.Live with Kelly and Regis together for a decade, but their relationship off camera wasn’t the same as it appeared in front of the camera.
The actress was the star of the film All My ChildrenWhen she was tapped for replacement Kathie Lee Gifford as Philbin’s cohost on the morning talk show. She got the gig after a memorable appearance as a guest host in 2000 — when a psychic named Char MargolisOn air, she revealed that she was pregnant.
“I haven’t told my boss yet!” Ripa admitted at the time.
The Following are her 10th Anniversary Specials in 2011. Hope & FaithMargolis was credited by an alum for her job. “Char, of course, is the reason that I got my job here, I’m convinced. I really am convinced that you’re the reason I wound up getting this job,” she said.
Philbin also shared a similar sentiment with his 2011 book.
“In the end, it could only be Kelly,” he wrote. “We kind of knew that from her memorable debut onward. She was the right choice and really the only choice.”
After more than 20 year, on LiveThe former Who Wants To Be a MillionaireIn 2011, he was fired as host. He returned to the show in 2011. Larry King Live, revealing he and Ripa were no longer in touch — and alleging that he was never asked to appear on the talk show again.
“Never once did they ask me to go back,” Philbin claimed about Live2017 “[Kelly]She was very offended when she saw me leave. She thought I was leaving her because of her. I was leaving because I was getting older and that wasn’t right for me anymore.”
President of the WABC Dave Davis responded to Philbin’s comments at the time: “It was wonderful to have Regis on the show for our 2015 Halloween special. He’s also been invited back several times as a guest and, in fact, was confirmed for a date but was not able to make it at the time.”
Ripa stayed mum about her former cohost’s remarks for years but was asked about the drama while promoting her memoir,Live Wire: Short Stories of Long-Winded,September 2022. “I was steadfast in my attempt at communication. You can’t make a person befriend you,” she told People.
She also spoke about the early days in Live in her book.
“I want people to understand that joining Live, from my perspective, was a terrifying venture,” Ripa told Haute LivingSeptember 2022. “It was entering into a work environment that I did not understand. I don’t think I would have been able to handle it if I had gone there now. But, back then, that was not my experience. I didn’t protect myself as well as I should have. It was a different time back then. It was a tabloid, journalistic, free-for-all, and there were systems in place there for a long time at the talk show that were not necessarily there to protect me.”
Scroll down to see a complete timeline of their ups & downs.
