Kelly Ripa may be one of America's most recognizable daytime TV hosts,
but all that fame and success doesn't come without its problems. Here are
some of the tragedies Ripa has endured over the years.
Kelly Ripa was already a daytime TV fixture on All My Children before she transitioned to the
talk show world. Her fans were thrilled to see Ripa take over for Kathie Lee Gifford in
the coveted role on Live! with co-host Regis Philbin, but her early days at the show were
tough to say the least. For example, it took three seasons of co-hosting the show before Ripa had
her own office space, and in the meantime she was relegated to a janitor's closet. She told Variety:
"It didn't make a whole lot of sense, especially
because there were empty offices that I could have easily occupied."
"I was expected to be grateful and to appreciate my job without creating a fuss."
During her first few years on the show, Ripa didn't even have her own bathroom,
and had to use the same public bathroom as the Live! audience. Not only was this unfair,
considering co-host Regis Philbin had his own private restroom,
it was particularly unpleasant when Ripa was pregnant during filming. She told Variety:
"We have a studio audience — like 250 people! — and I have to queue up. Particularly when I
was pregnant, it was extraordinarily exhausting to have to wait in line."
Ripa's fans know her to be bubbly and funny, the perfectly affable daytime host. However,
Ripa has faced her fair share of mental health issues,
including depression and anxiety. In her book Live Wire, she wrote:
"I have a severe case of social anxiety disorder, and I tend to
say awkward or inappropriate things when under duress."
Ripa also seemed to be struggling with depression, as she recalled telling her therapist that she had
trouble getting out of bed in the morning; she endured tremendous physical pain and
a severe lack of energy. She also spoke about feeling constantly distracted and overwhelmed,
and recalled feeling like she had to cry more often than not. She wrote:
"I cry in the shower. I cry myself to sleep. I cry backstage. I sometimes
want to cry in the middle of the show. Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe."
Ripa credits therapy with helping her cope. Her therapist helped her find a healthier outlook
on her busy life and encouraged her to look out for herself. As Ripa shared with People magazine:
"She really taught me just how to be a better self advocate,
how to think of things in a different way."
Ripa's original Live! co-star was the legendary Regis Philbin. Although the
two appeared to be thick as thieves, Philbin made it clear behind the scenes
that he was the one in charge. In Live Wire, Ripa wrote that,
when she was first offered the gig at Live!, her agent included an "ominous" caveat:
"They want you to know who your boss is."
Ripa and Philbin hosted the show together from 2001 until Philbin's exit in 2011,
but it was not always easy for Ripa. She shared in her memoir:
"I don't want to feel like I'm slamming anyone or that
I'm being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk."
More difficult still was the falling-out she and Philbin appeared to have following his
departure from the show. In 2017, Philbin told Larry King he had not been in touch with Ripa,
and said he thought she’d been "offended" that he'd left.
"She thought I was leaving because of her. I was leaving because I was
getting older and it wasn't right for me anymore."
Ripa claimed that she had tried to reconnect with him,
writing that the show had reached out to him many times. She wrote:
"You can't make a person befriend you."
When Philbin died in 2020 at the age of 88, however, Ripa was heartbroken,
describing him as someone who she believed "could figure out a way around the inevitable."
"It was not in the cards, I suppose."
2020 was a difficult year for Kelly Ripa, as her close friend and All My Children co-star
John Callahan also died. Ripa was candid about her loss during an episode of Live!
"I had a really bad weekend this weekend."
She went on to detail her tight-knit relationship with Callahan and his family,
revealing that Callahan's second wife, Eva LaRue, is her oldest son's godmother. Additionally,
Callahan's daughter and Ripa's daughter had become great friends.
"Eva and Kaya, that we are thinking of you, and we are just so sad and devastated."
Ripa spoke fondly about her former castmate, adding that, at just 66 years old, he had died
much too young. She referred to her friend as "a gentleman" and talked about his sense of humor.
"We've all been, like, going through our brains about all
of the funny 'Callahanisms' over the years."
Ripa kept her composure during the show,
but apologized to viewers if she seemed at all off her game.
Ripa and Mark Consuelos share three kids: Michael,
Lola, and Joaquin Consuelos. Ripa has spoken at length about her children
throughout her tenure on Live! But she has also dealt with feelings of guilt,
as juggling her career and her family duties has often been a challenge. In 2011, she told Yahoo!:
"I always feel guilty. I think every working
mother does have that guilt about failing in some way."
Luckily, Ripa learned to let herself off the hook
and maintain a healthy acceptance of her guilty feelings. She explained:
"The way I've learned to sort of balance it is just by knowing that I'm going to
fail everybody a little bit every day. Nobody's going to get hurt. So, I just
have to sort of relieve myself of feeling the pressure to do everything perfectly every day."
Another big help is her husband, Mark, who Ripa praised for keeping family
life running smoothly and being all about equal parenting. She explained:
"We have consistency in our schedule. And I have to credit my husband with this,
because [...] he's always been extraordinarily organized,
and he's really taught me how to simplify my life through organization."
From 2012 until 2016, Ripa shared hosting duties on Live! with former
New York Giants football player Michael Strahan. The two sure seemed to have a
solid bond in front of the cameras, but Strahan's eventual departure from
the show was kept secret from Ripa — a decision that hurt her deeply.
"What transpired over the course of the last few days has been extraordinary."
As Ripa detailed in Live Wire, executives at ABC had big plans for Strahan,
placing him in a coveted hosting spot on Good Morning America. The network was instructed
to keep the switch under wraps, not even giving Ripa a heads-up until Strahan's
new contract was signed. Writing about her experiences in her memoir, she revealed:
"Had I known how difficult it would have been,
I don't know that I would have gone for it. I just think my ignorance in that
situation wound up being my blessing and my superpower. I did not have an easy time."
In 2011, Ripa partnered with Electrolux for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month,
participating in a virtual sleepover event to raise money for ovarian cancer
research. Cancer is something Ripa is all too familiar with,
as it had touched the lives of several family members and friends. In 2011, she told Yahoo!:
"The reason I got involved with Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is a close friend and neighbor
of mine growing up died when she was younger than I am now of ovarian cancer and she never
really even knew she was sick. She never knew she had the disease until it was too late."
Ripa also revealed that she and her husband grappled with
cancer within their families. She explained:
"Both my mother and Mark's mother have both battled and overcome cancer."
Thankfully, both Camilla Consuelos and Esther Ripa survived the disease,
and Ripa continued her charity work to help others do the same. In 2015,
she and designer Donna Karan hosted Super Saturday NY, a high-end garage sale and
kids' carnival with proceeds going to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.
Ripa has spoken about her family so frequently on Live! that audiences
have basically witnessed her children grow up. In 2021, Ripa shared that she and Mark
Consuelos were about to be empty nesters because their youngest child, Joaquin,
was preparing for college. This milestone was especially significant to the family,
as Ripa's son had been diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia, and had to work extra hard in school.
Ripa shared that her husband doubted college was in Joaquin's future. Understandably,
Mark was emotional when Joaquin ended up having multiple options
to choose from when it came time to go to college.
"I always say that dyslexia, for our family,
at least, and if you read about it — it can be quite a blessing."
Joaquin ended up getting accepted by the University of Michigan,
where he has gone on to have great success on the wrestling team.
In 2022, Ripa's mother, Esther, dealt with yet another health issue,
one that required her to undergo heart surgery. Kelly spoke about the experience on Live!,
explaining that her mom was doing well, while expressing her gratitude
for the healthcare workers she encountered during the ordeal.
"You don't really realize what gems hospital workers are."
Kelly also joked that her father had been asking her mother too many open questions
following the procedure, and that she had learned how to deal with these situations.
"Are you hot? Are you cold? Do you want dad to stop talking now?"
In 1997, Ripa experienced a medical emergency that was as scary as it was embarrassing.
According to Live Wire, Ripa was having sex with her husband when she passed out;
she woke up in the hospital. It turned out two ruptured ovarian cysts were the culprit,
a phenomenon that is common, but can be frightening nonetheless.
Thankfully, Ripa was fine, but her pride took a hit, as her husband dressed her in
a rather chaotic outfit in his haste to get her some help. In her memoir,
Ripa recalled she was wearing a leotard, red Manolo Blahnik heels,
and a pair of oversized warm-up pants when she woke up in the hospital. She wrote:
"Here is my husband, who is, dare I say, stylish, well-dressed at all times,
and yet he dressed me like a dime store prostitute in my time of need."
Through the years, Kelly Ripa shared the Live! stage with Regis Philbin, Michael Strahan,
Ryan Seacrest, and a wide array of guest hosts. In April 2023, Ripa began working
with yet another new co-host: her husband. Mark Consuelos seemed like the perfect match for Ripa,
and fans loved seeing them together during the occasions on which he guest hosted the show.
However, when Consuelos became the official Live! host,
things got off to a rocky start. Fans took to social media to air
their opinions — and it was not pretty. One user on X, formerly Twitter, declared:
"I can go to the mall and watch teenagers kiss LESS!!! THE BEGINNING OF THE END."
Another wrote:
"Remember the days with Regis, when REAL social & news issues were discussed? NOT
'bedtime eating & sleeping habits' [...] or many other mundane things that were conversed about!"
It was all pretty harsh, but even Ripa herself admitted to Variety she'd had
reservations about doing the show with her husband of 27 years. She said:
"We'd be the last people on earth to suggest ourselves to work together for anything."
Still, the couple kept at it and in 2024,
Ripa told ET she and Consuelos would be working together for the foreseeable future. She said:
"I've spent my life with him, I can do things with him for decades."