Did Kelly Ripa inform her ABC bosses that she was telling her story to People?

Kelly Ripa Honored With Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame
Michael Strahan’s last day on Live is today. We’ll have to see how he and Kelly handle it, although from what I’ve seen of the show they still seem to get along well on camera. They’re probably going to give him a nice send off. She had some complimentary things to say about Michael in her People interview, and she saved the bulk of her criticism for her bosses at ABC. While she didn’t name names, she made it clear that she thought that it was unfair that she, and by extension many of their coworkers, had been left out of discussions about Michael’s exit. She was surprisingly candid and chatty to People, and admitted that she and the rest of the staff had made the decision to ask Michael to leave May 13th instead of September because they needed more time to search for his replacement. Here are some of the quotes she gave about her bosses which I left out of the earlier story for space.

I think that all people are deserving of fair treatment in the work place. People deserve respect. People should be treated equally and with dignity.

I think that requires a certain amount of empathy on a level. When you’re dealing with big business, it’s easy to forget that you’re dealing with people and that people have feelings. It’s easy to just look at it like a business unit, a unit, a unit.”

There’s a part of me that can say, ‘Okay, I understand. This may have been an oversight.” and again, after 26 years, at this point we are like a family. And sometimes when you are so comfortable with somebody, you may not given them the same consideration as somebody you’re not as comfortable with – a certain formality falls away. I’m not dealing with monsters. I don’t think of anybody as a monster or out to get me. But sometimes stability and dependability can be misinterpreted as passive. Like, ‘Oh, we don’t have to worry about her, she’s fine. She’s fine.’ And I am fine, but I need assurances that we’re all going to be fine.

People make mistakes and we’re all human They’re human and I’m human. We all have these moments and it’s about how you move forward and how you begin again.

[From People, online and print edition]

Coupled with the rest of what she said, it wasn’t bad overall, and she basically confirmed all the stories that she’d leaked during her exit. She put her foot down and some people think that’s admirable while others find it unprofessional.

Radar Online is reporting that Kelly did that interview with People without informing her bosses at all. I don’t think she owed it to them, but it may have been smart to give them a heads up, even if they didn’t show her the same courtesy. Their source says “They had no idea she was telling her story to the cover of People until after it went to print on Monday. She has gone rogue. She doesn’t trust her bosses anymore and is taking her career into her own hands.” Kelly just told the press what happened and gave her side of the story. It probably doesn’t please the higher ups at ABC but they know she means business.

TMZ is reporting that Kelly is ignoring Michael off camera and that she’s been closing the door to her dressing room in the mornings. He used to stop by and say hi to her every morning as she was prepped for the show but she put a stop to that. They also report that Michael was offered the cover of People but turned it down, and they imply that she isn’t a champion for her co-workers as she’s claimed. “The day she came back she hardly said a word to anyone on the staff or to Michael.” The staff supports Michael, according to TMZ and you know who their source is. The truth is probably somewhere in between, with Kelly being somewhat petty and self-centered. Also petty: Kelly wore a jacket with the word “Freedom” on the back of it yesterday. Remember how she carried a copy of David and Goliath when she first got papped after the news broke? She’s obvious.

Kelly Ripa Honored With Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame

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39 Responses to “Did Kelly Ripa inform her ABC bosses that she was telling her story to People?”

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  1. Snazzy says:

    In that top pic her head looks so much bigger than the rest of her body … like it was badly photoshopped on or something. How does her neck hold that thing up?

    • sheila says:

      please,please have this hateful, nasty vindictive woman go away. the show is so over rated and so is she,, complete diva, she needs to go far, far away

      • NeNe says:

        Agreed! In my eyes, she’s coming off so bad. Boo hoo they didn’t tell me. Get over it already! Big baby!

    • QQ says:

      YOOOOO Besides the fact I Wanna point out the delicious Irony of her asking the ABC brass for input and then running to People to wah wah about this without telling them, And Just how catty and tacky and messy this is getting ( Fam, calm down yall are are millionaires!) I was so Taken aback by how huge and out of scale with her body her head looks in a lot of these pics LOLL

    • denisemich says:

      @snazzy. That isn’t photo shop. Seen her before and she is all head like a lollipop.

    • Citresse says:

      Ripa always reminds me a Keebler Elf. They got some big heads too.

  2. NewWester says:

    If “Live with Kelly and new co host” is around next year at this time I will be very surprised.

    • Josefina says:

      Truly. I have never even watched her show, and I’m already very exhausted by this woman. Your story really isn’t all that interesting, Kelly.

    • EM says:

      Agreed. Her treatment of Michael for accepting a different position is immature and unprofessional at best. Her true colors have come through and they are not pretty.

    • tealily says:

      But, of course, her story will be that management screwed it up by stealing her cohost and under-valuing the brand, when in reality she is the one who has done the heavy lifting as far as ill-will from the public is concerned.

  3. anniefannie says:

    She’s stoking this story and I think it’s going to backfire on her. While she seems somewhat reasonable in the interview not giving the exec’s a heads-up is going rogue. I think in her bubble this story is a lot more meaningful to her than us.

    • lisa says:

      ita

      at the end of the day, they can still get rid of the show and her. not vice versa.

    • Cricket says:

      totally agree. by doing that People interview with no head’s up to ABC, she sealed her and that show’s fate – where she loves the staff and they are her family – put a fork in it.. GMA will now be on the 9 -10am slot. What irony if that is the slot they build Micheal around.

      I think she blew it. gambled and lost.. and the way she seems so bitter, who will want to buy toothpaste or washer and dryers from her now? say goodbye to that Hampton beach house and lifestyle.. hope she saved her $$.

  4. Brittney B. says:

    This whole saga is so strange to me, but I’m rooting for her for completely unrelated reasons*. I’m not a soap fan or a daytime talk show watcher, but I don’t blame her for coming forward & I trust that there’s a LOT we don’t know, motivating her to get her story out there first. I mean, imagine losing control of your career overnight and realizing your bosses have all the money, clout, power, etc… to dictate the narrative. She’s making sure she gets the FIRST word this time, and that’s a really smart move. If she’d warned them, Disney/ABC would DEFINITELY have been able to pull (or edit) the cover story. I bet there are lingering reasons to mistrust them, and to want more power over the process.

    Thought: is she trying to get a solo show on a different network? Maybe she could give Jennifer Garner’s panel show pitch a boost.

    * I met her and her husband several times when they were still on All My Children together… and she is still hands-down the nicest celebrity I’ve ever met. It probably helped that I was between 8 and 10 for these meetings, but I was part of the ABC “family” (not the channel, lol) at the time, and she took the time to compliment my necklace and remembered me (and the necklace) every time I ran into her over the next few years. I even waited in line for It’s A Small World with them and Mark’s extended family, and I felt like I was part of the family for that hour or so (no line jumping either, and this was during a soap opera event at the park).

    Aaaaaanyway, they were such genuine, normal people… and maybe she’s changed over the years, but you can’t erase empathy or respect for your fans and team members. Hayley and Mateo 4ever.

  5. LA says:

    Her behavior has been very unprofessional IMO. If this is any representation of how she behaves regularly, it’s no wonder they didn’t let her know until the last minute.

  6. GoodNamesAllTaken says:

    Your work is not your family. Your work is work. It’s nice if you build a team that feels like family, and everyone gets along and supports one other, but that’s not why you’re there. You’re there to make a profit for the owners and the shareholders and to further your own goals, whatever they may be. Would I leave my family for more money? No. Would I leave my job for more money. Probably. To confuse these two things will always leave you disappointed, feeling victimized and hurt. She is being a child. And I notice that she didn’t feel it necessary to discuss her own career moves with everybody on her team. I guess it’s not betrayal when she does it.

  7. guest says:

    They get paid waaaaaay to much for what they do.

  8. minx says:

    Just, go away.

  9. Susan says:

    I used to genuinely like her but no longer. She seems very angry and spiteful. And jealous.

  10. Skins says:

    She is really showing her true colors here. Not a big fan of Michael’s but he did nothing wrong here. She just looks like a spiteful, vindictive woman here, she should be thankful for the gig she has and the money she makes, because her only real talent is she looks like a barbie doll or something and has the cutsie factor going for her. Doubt if anybody would care if she just went away.

    • Cran says:

      Not a Michael fan either. He has behaved in some disposable ways in his life. Kelly crossed a line her. Her comments come across as she understands when she is not receiving respect yet knows little about giving the same. This tit for tat game she is playing is tiresome. Finding the right balance with co-hosts is certainly not easy but this is not uncharted territory for her. It was done to find her and it was done to find Michael. She makes MILLIONS PER YEAR. Does her job entail her working forty hours or more per week?

  11. Bluesky says:

    Maybe I’m in the minority here but I don’t get this. I understand being upset being told at the last minute he was leaving, but what makes her think she is entitled to be involved in those talks? She’s an employee like he is. If my manager told me not to tell my coworkers about me leaving, I wouldn’t. Michael is not the villan here, so to me she’s being petty. She’s not a martyr. She’s a spoiled rich woman. You make 20 million a year. Let me walk off the job because I’m mad! I wouldn’t have a job. Seeing how she’s reacting I can see why they waited to tell her.

  12. Merritt says:

    What story does she have to tell? A co-star moved on to a new job. So what, it happens. She is acting like she is a victim. It is ridiculous. I can’t blame Michael for wanting to leave if this is how she acts.

  13. LizLemonGotMarried says:

    Team Kelly, all the way. SHE is the brand, and they patted her on the head and made decisions that impacted the show. THAT is not the way business works in a healthy environment.
    Case in point: I’m taking over another team from another leader. Long before that decision was public, his team was looped in, quietly, so they could start prepping for the transition and so they felt like they were in the know about their lives. Transparency, empathy, and honesty foster strong work relationships and create employees who feel secure in their jobs and who have a healthy work-life balance. Those things create productive and successful employees, NOT fear, uncertainty, lack of trust, doubt…those things damage productivity and undermine success. We spend tons of our most productive time in our work relationships-it’s disheartening to read on here how many people think she’s just being a spoiled brat. She’s fighting the battle publicly because they can’t make that go away-if she just put her head down and took it, they would continue to treat her like a non-entity, on her own freaking show.

    • Freddy Spaghetti says:

      I’m with you. I have a feeling if this was someone else, like Ann Curry, she wouldn’t be called unprofessional. Kelly is the face of the show, and I respect her for standing up to the suits.

    • Colette says:

      She is unprofessional for taking it out on Michael what her bosses did to her.She worked for Disney/ABC for 26 years yet THEY didn’t respect her enough to give her a head’s up.Why?

      • tealily says:

        I think it’s absolutely because they knew she would behave like this. Don’t you?

      • holly hobby says:

        I would think management knows the real her after having worked with her for 20 years. What we are getting is a gosh golly facade. Who knows how a celebrity works in real life.

        It’s just like work. To outsiders the veneer is all shiny and bright. However to the insiders who actually work with the same people for years, they know the real story. I’ve seen work place dysfunction before. People from the outside think everything is ok but inside is just one big clusterf***.

    • ohdear says:

      I would love to read a dissection of what is really going on here down the road when the dust settles, and from people in the know of the whole Disney Corporate structure. I think the company is still incredibly myopic on the women they hire to be the face of their shows. I imagine they have very different standards for their male counterparts than for their females. The seem like the kind of company who would fire a woman for having an affair with the cameraman but give a corner office to the man doing the same thing. he might be fighting her fight about the only cause she can when she’s trying to change the culture overall.

  14. Tallia says:

    Is this show still on? I never cared for her (I’m sure she doesn’t care for me either), but I was surprised Strahan was so beloved. He’s a bit cray. When he put the GPS trackers on Nicole Murphy’s car, etc. I thought all of his skeleton’s would come out but they are still hiding, I guess.

    • Simone says:

      Did he really? I did get the sense that he was a bit of a sleaze beneath that faux friendly-Charlie charm exterior…
      From the get go he didn’t seem to be a good match yet kelly did get yay or nay rights didn’t she?

  15. Myrna says:

    I’ve never been able to get past her character – long ago – in All My Children.
    Hayley, Adam’s long lost love child.
    Kelly nailed that character’s conniving viciousness.
    It seems nothing’s changed.

    • CF98 says:

      Hayley did end up changing though yeah she was a troubled wild child but she grew up and became a decent person afterwards. I saw her when she was nice I was surprised to find out Hayley gave Adam nearly as much trouble as Skye did.

      Adam Chandler was my fave soap character ever I can’t believe its been 7 months since DC died.

      • Myrna says:

        I was never able to get past Kelly’s role as Hayley.
        She played the nasty bitch so well – it’s almost like they’re one – LOL.

        Didn’t know he passed away – superb actor!

  16. Jessie says:

    Why is this a thing? Like seriously, neither one of them is popular enough for people to care, and it’s just a daytime talk show.

    • CF98 says:

      Actually Strahan is well known amongst sports fans though anyone who follows the NFL knows who he is. So I wouldn’t say he isn’t popular enough.

      Kelly was on a popular soap and while its been over for years soap fans are hard core and loyal.

  17. Twinkle says:

    Oh who cares? Like this is the big story? Get over it, Kelly.

  18. Bridget says:

    I’ve avoided all of the Kelly/Michael posts for a while because of the tone that folks have been taking. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it doesn’t worry folks that the first reaction is to basically call Kelly petty and to just be happy with what she’s got? She’s given reasoned, polite, well thought out statements. And the irony of people saying that it was unprofessional for her not to give her bosses a heads-up – why would they be entitled to one if she wasn’t? She works for them but the don’t own her and she controls her own image. I’m not saying that this is the hill I want to make a big stand on, but I just don’t get it.