In Kelly Ripa’s memoir, she talked about her relationship with Regis Philbin, which she indicated wasn’t great. I don’t have a problem with Kelly saying she didn’t get along with Regis and that he made it hard to work with him. My issue was instead of highlighting a workplace dynamic that many of us have had to navigate, Kelly spoke as if she was giving a big “Nuh-uh!” to a dead man. But, that is her right, to tell her story of how she came up in her career. And I am sure she had it rough, with huge expectations set upon her when she started at Live with Regis and Kelly. Not to mention huge shoes to fill. Unfortunately, those shoes she filled want nothing to do with the stories Kelly’s peddling. Kathie Lee Gifford has seen the headlines Kelly’s been generating and she’s upset. Unlike Kelly, Kathy and Regis had a very genuine friendship that lasted until his death. When she saw Kelly had unkind things to say about her friend and co-worker, Kathie decided she’d stay away from Kelly’s book.
Kathie Lee Gifford has no plans to read Kelly Ripa’s first book — but she doesn’t appreciate her Live! replacement’s anecdotes about Regis Philbin.
Gifford, who co-hosted the morning show with Philbin from 1985 to 2000, was asked about Ripa’s new headline-making memoir. In Live Wire, Ripa opens up about her relationship with Philbin even telling Yahoo Entertainment, “I make no illusions that there was this friendship.”
“I was very sorry to see the headlines,” Gifford, 69, told Rosanna Scotto on Fox 5’s Good Day New York. “We see headlines all the time, you know, you never know what’s true and what’s not true… I went, ‘I hope this isn’t true. I just hope it isn’t.’ Cause what’s the point? You know, I don’t get it. I don’t get it. I’m not gonna read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet.”
“I just know what Regis was to me, Rosanna,” Gifford continued. “He was 15 years the best partner I could ever, ever have professionally. But he was my friend. We were dear friends and after I left the show for the next 20 years we became better friends. Dearer friends. I saw him two weeks before he died.”
“We always just picked up right where we left off,” Gifford recalled. “We were absolutely perfect together for television. We never had an argument, not an unkind word in 15 years. So that was my reality.”
Gifford hopes Philbin’s widow, Joy, and his four adult children don’t see Ripa’s stories.
“Lord, protect Joy and the girls from this,” Gifford said, emphasizing: “In all the years I’ve known him, I never saw him unkind to anybody.”As for Ripa, Gifford said she’s “not going to say anything ugly about anybody.”
“I never have, and I’m not going to start now,” she said. “I’m just saying my reality is something completely different than that.”
As I said in another post, Kelly and I have a lot of similarities. I identify with her in the Regis situation. I had a boss who just didn’t like me. I put his g-d business on the map as an event space and he couldn’t care less if I was in the room or not. What made it worse was he did become friends with other people on the staff, so it was glaringly obvious that there was something about me he didn’t gel with. He didn’t cross a line into harassment or anything, he was just a cold m-f who made sharing an office incredibly uncomfortable. So I feel for Kelly, working for a man who everybody in America likes and she desperately wants to like her. And, he quite obviously had a close relationship with his former co-host Kathie Lee, which probably salted Kelly’s wounds as well. But Kelly’s comments sound like her anger is misplaced.
As for Kathie Lee weighing in on this, she didn’t need to. I assume she was asked though, and I assume she felt the need to defend her dear, dead friend. To be fair, Kelly didn’t drag Kathie Lee into this. Technically Kelly was setting the record straight from when Regis told Larry King she was mad at him for leaving, even if she did wait this long to do so. But Kathie Lee knew him pretty well so I guess she felt he needed defending. I don’t know Joy Philbin well but she always struck me as a person with a good head on her shoulders, I don’t think she needs shielding from Kelly suggesting she didn’t have a great relationship with Regis.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Getty Images
I find all three annoying…my Regis Rest In Peace. The show was annoying, the host were annoying. They were like really rich people who had you over for dinner for a grand meal but you couldn’t enjoy the meal because the couldn’t stop singing show tunes.
The show still has that vibe but I haven’t watched is incarnation of it so…
Ditto.
Kelly Ripa always seemed like a soulless toothpick to me.
This is a hilarious and apt description!
That meal sounds like my idea of a good time. I’d dine with Auntie Mame all the livelong day.
But Auntie Mame was cool & progressive…Regis et al…ARE NOT😝
Came here to say the same thing. I don’t like any of these people.
Since we all agreed last time that he was a “curmodgeon” I don’t understand why it would be so unthinkable that he was “unkind” to someone. I just do not subscribe to the notion that once somebody has died, you can only say nice things about them even if they were a d*ck somtimes. My father died 2 years ago and while we all loved him dearly, he as a difficult man. It wouldn’t fit my memory of him if suddenly everyone was forced to only remember the good times and his good qualities. We all have a very clear picture of who he was and still love and miss him, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Maybe he loved Kathie Lee and treated her accordingly. Maybe he thought of Kelly as “it” in the beginning and treated her accordingly.
It was obvious Regis didn’t like Kelly. She isn’t exactly spilling the tea.
Yeah, I remember Regis being a cranky dude whenever he was on other shows and maybe that was his shtick or maybe he rubbed some people wrong. I don’t blame Kelly for her opinion; she didn’t have the relationship with him that Kathy Lee did. Let’s be honest, Kathy Lee was always pretty annoying too.
Even after death, everyone is expected to suck up and fawn over Regis Philbin.
Every time I think of Regis Philbin, I remember him (on multiple occasions) talking about having a stuffy nose and calling it “a noseful”.
I’m a nice person but not to everyone. It’s okay for the person who was not a recipient of my niceness to talk about the experience they had with me. Why is this a controversy?
Kelly has the right to tell HER story. I’m sure Regis’ wife and daughters are too busy bathing in million dollar bills to be bothered by this. Kathie Lee continues to be a sanctimonious harpy.
I love how Kathie Lee says she never says anything ugly about anyone and isn’t going to start now. This is the same woman who publicly stated she was praying with Marla Maples that Donald Trump’s marriage would end so he could marry Marla. A true christian woman she is, praying for the end of a marriage.
And wasn’t Frank Gifford married to another woman when the two of them got together?
Hmm.
I feel like Kathy accidentally proved Kelly’s point.
Regis didn’t want a replacement. He wanted Kathy, his dear dear dear friend.
So Kelly never stood a chance with him. He was never going to welcome or accept that his dear dear Kathy left.
& those types of men, they like women who placate, & that’s what I get from Kathy. She got along so well cause she just went along with him, he ran the show & she was ok with that. Nothing wrong with that, but I’ll never be on board with women saying “that wasn’t my experience!” as a way to negate a woman speaking her truth.
She really didn’t need to say anything, even in death a privileged white man will be just fine.
If it were just “that wasn’t my experience” it would be fine. It’s the truth so why try to pretend otherwise? It’s when it veers into “that wasn’t my experience and it couldn’t possibly be hers because he was so kind to me and I refuse to admit he might have treated her differently!” that it is bizarre.
I can see that Regis and Kathy Lee were good friends, and I agree Kathy Lee always acted as a second banana to Regis on the show. I think she thought Regis has had many years in show biz and she saw herself as his sidekick and was fine with that. And yes, Regis wanted Kathy Lee to stay.
Also, Kathy Lee was closer in age and she knew Regis shtick was “grumpy Regis”
Regis and Letterman did the “curmudgeon shtick” for years.
Both should have retired years earlier.
Kelly took the job, hoping to get her hubby in as co-host. She constantly pushed Mark for the job.
I don’t actually care but, my coffee isn’t ready yet. lol
Regis was friends with Trump. That tells me everything I need to know about him.
And Kathie Lee is extremely right wing despite her daytime show persona.
Honestly, team Kelly on this one.
F- Kathie and Regis, the “curmudgeon” 🙄
Didn’t Kathie Lee tell a story, maybe in her book, about Regis making a disrespectful comment to (or about?) her and Frank got in his face about it? After that he treated her with more respect.
Thank you so much Katie. You made it so I was not alone.
My Regis story, second-hand. Regis lived in Greenwich, CT (one of the wealthiest towns in the country, for those unfamiliar with New England). He was known in town for selling his used CDs and VCR tapes (it was the 80s and 90s) to the local rental place. Given that he probably received most of them as part of his job, he really was working hard for every penny.
Kathy Lee made a disrespectful remark about one of her producers, to the tune of “I think I know my public better than a Jewish man in New York.” I clocked this as anti-Semitic, as did a lot of people. I also think Kathy Lee is half-Jewish? I could be wrong on that. She was never my cup of tea, but neither was Kelly Ripa nor Regis.
Reege sounds like an absolute piece of work. Glad he’s not my burden to carry.