Before there was Kelly and Ryan and Kelly and Michael, there was Regis and Kelly.
What was their rapport like off screen?
And how did it change after Regis left the show in 2011?
Here is the truth about their relationship.
It appeared that Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin would be friends forever - especially after
their mushy exchange on Philbin's last episode of "Live" in 2011.
But it turns out their bond wasn't as strong as viewers might have thought.
Philbin told "Larry King Now" in 2017 that they no longer kept in touch, which would
explain why he was MIA during Ripa's 15th anniversary show.
Ripa hinted that all was not well with them in 2013 when she told The Hollywood Reporter:
"I haven't seen him."
It was a stark contrast from her interview in 2012 with OMG! when she said Philbin had
contacted her a few nights before.
According to Ripa:
"He called to tell me how happy he is for me and how proud he is of the job we're doing
there and the great ratings news that came out."
It should be noted that Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford remained friends after the latter left "Live."
Philbin even once joined Gifford on the "Today" show and they still got dinner together from
time to time, proving not everything in Hollywood is fake.
You can blame Kelly Ripa for the falling-out - or at least that's what Regis Philbin seemed
to imply on "Larry King Now".
He said:
"She got very offended when I 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."
He made similar comments in an interview with "The Insider" when he said:
"I left and I think she resented that.
I mean, that's how I feel about it.
And I'm sorry because I wasn't trying to dive from her.
But I was a little tired, you know.
And I was just turning 80, so I gotta get out of there."
Philbin didn't point to a specific incident to back up his claim or say if he tried to
reach out to Ripa to clear the air.
It's possible he made just as little of an effort to repair the relationship as Ripa had.
We don't know for sure since she didn't publicly respond to his finger-pointing.
However, It wouldn't be completely out of character for Ripa to get upset at a co-host
for quitting the show.
Philbin's replacement and former NFL star Michael Strahan told People that he and Ripa,
quote, "didn't really communicate that much" after it was revealed in 2016 that he was
leaving "Live With Kelly and Michael" to join "Good Morning America."
In fact, she was so miffed by the whole thing that she purposely didn't show up for the
"Live" show following Strahan's announcement.
Don't let the age difference between Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin fool you.
The mother of three insisted that she was more like the parent in the relationship,
despite being 39 years younger than Philbin.
Ripa related on "The Wendy Williams Show":
"I irritate him that much.
I'm like, 'Sit down.
You've got to drink this.
You can't do that.
Don't do that.
Don't eat that hot dog.
You had heart surgery."
And don't forget the time Ripa slightly reprimanded Philbin for patting Nicki Minaj's butt.
Ripa shouted after noticing his wandering hand:
"Regis!
What just happened?"
Yikes.
The secret to Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa's witty banter on camera might have been the
lack of preparation and scripting involved beforehand.
Ripa told The New York Times in 2017:
"Regis had a mandate: Absolutely no talking off camera.
He had almost a superstition about it.
You save it for the show.
I'd be like 'Good morning,' and he'd say 'Save it for the air.'"
Ripa apparently didn't feel the same way Philbin did.
In that same article, Ripa said she and "Live With Kelly and Ryan" co-host Ryan Seacrest
text at night and hang out on weekends.
Philbin's unorthodox approach to TV obviously wasn't for everyone, but it spoke volumes
of his emphasis on authenticity.
He told Newsday in 2016:
"I used to force myself to go out the night before because, if I didn't, I wouldn't have
anything to talk about the next day.
These days, some people have scripts and people writing for them, but in those days, I wanted
it to be for real.
I wanted it to be about whatever was going on."
Despite their falling-out, Kelly Ripa has sung her co-host's praises on more than one
occasion since they stopped appearing on-air together.
In an interview with The New York Times, she was asked how in the world Regis - who wasn't
a singer, dancer, comic, or actor - continuously succeeded in an industry where many others
with more talent have failed?
She believes he thrived, in part, due to his ability to tell a story like nobody else could.
She told the outlet:
"I think he's the world's greatest storyteller.
That's his gift."
Philbin had plenty of material to work with after having spent six decades on television
and having befriended the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Barbara Walters, Don Rickles, and Donald Trump.
But Ripa told Good Housekeeping in 2012 it was the less glamorous anecdotes that she
missed most about Philbin:
"There was always something going wrong in his life, and that was always very funny.
Nobody has luck that bad."
Philbin too chose to focus on his good memories of Ripa when writing about her in his 2011
memoir, "How I Got This Way".
One of the book's passages reads:
"She could instinctively zero in on the funniest details, which came out of nowhere and somehow
hit a comic bull's eye.
That knack of hers pretty instantly struck a chord with the audience."
Clearly he was in awe of Ripa, or Pippa, as he affectionately nicknamed her.
Philbin also stated in the book that her talent, quote, "came from, frankly, such an unexpected
source — I mean, a young soap opera actress?"
He went on to add:
"Usually that kind of easy conversational spark is innate only in a special breed of
broadcaster types."
High praise, right?
Maybe their friendship was the real deal after all.
Regis Philbin's lovable curmudgeon act wasn't actually an act.
Kelly Ripa told the "The Wendy Williams Show" that the Philbin viewers saw on television
was the same Philbin the show's staff saw behind the scenes, complainer and all.
During a 2012 appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman," Ripa said no one escaped
Philbin's wrath, not even cute babies.
She said:
"He hated Beautiful Baby Week.
He didn't really like Pet Week.
He didn't understand Back To School Prom Fashion Week and any of that."
What did Philbin have against Beautiful Baby Week, exactly?
Ripa said:
"He didn't like it.
He felt all the kids looked the same."
Then, she launched into an impersonation of a worked-up Philbin:
"'Hey, Pippa, I can't tell.
Does that kid look beautiful to you?
I don't even think he looks right.'"
They might have had their differences over the years, but when Regis Philbin sadly passed
away in July 2020, Kelly Ripa was one of the first to pay her respects to the late TV legend.
According to People, in a moving joint statement with co-host Ryan Seacrest posted to Instagram,
she gushed:
"We are beyond saddened to learn about the loss of Regis Philbin.
He was the ultimate class act, bringing his laughter and joy into our homes everyday on
'Live' for more than 23 years."
The daytime TV host added they felt incredibly fortunate to have considered Philbin "a mentor"
and expressed a desire to live up to his sterling reputation each day they're on the air.
Ripa and Seacrest concluded by stating:
"We send our deepest love and condolences to his family and hope they can find some
comfort in knowing he left the world a better place."
During their final broadcast together, Ripa had memorably told Philbin:
"Your light is what shined around all of us and made us look so bright for so long."
Kelly Ripa's relationship with the late Regis Philbin might have been slightly strained
at times, but her three children were his biggest fans regardless.
During an episode of "Live!
With Kelly and Ryan" that aired just a couple days after the daytime icon's shock passing,
Ripa revealed her kids absolutely adored Philbin.
She said:
"What I love to remember about him is his relationship with my kids because Regis had this ability.
He would talk to kids like they were adults.
He didn't care if they were 2 [or] if they were 4.
It didn't matter [..] My kids responded to that in a way that was so - they just worshipped him."
In particular, Ripa pointed to a moment when he described her daughter, Lola Consuelos,
as a, quote, "gentile little lady."
As Ripa acknowledged, she knew then how sensitively Philbin likely approached his relationship
with his own daughter.
As much as they butted heads during their many years working in close quarters, Kelly Ripa
acknowledged there was nobody quite like Regis Philbin.
After more than a decade hosting "Live!" alongside the TV icon, she had plenty of fond memories to share.
While appearing on a special ABC tribute to Philbin, Ripa revealed the No. 1 life lesson
she'd learned from her late colleague:
"I think my biggest takeaway from the 11 years that I shared with him was that you have to be yourself.
You cannot be one person on camera and a different person once the light goes off or the audience is gone.
You have to be who you are."
In fact, the Daytime Emmy winner reckons Philbin's greatest legacy will be how the host made
everybody he came into contact with feel like they were the real stars.
Likewise, how much Philbin adored everybody equally will ensure he remains beloved as well.
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