Kelly Ripa has written a memoir called Live Wire: Long Winded Short Stories. The blurb for the book reads, “A sharp, funny, and honest collection of real-life stories from Kelly, showing the many dimensions and crackling wit of the beloved daytime talk show host.” One of those stories is about her time on Live with Kelly, from her hiring and working alongside with Regis Philbin to becoming the only name in the title. Except for the Michael Strahan, whom she left out of the book. Kelly gave an interview in which she talked about the section that dealt with Regis saying that “it wasn’t a cakewalk.” When Regis’ former co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford, read those headlines about Kelly’s interview, she expressed concern and vowed not to read the book because of them. Now Kelly is weighing in on Kathie’s comments, saying that if she did read the book, she’d probably feel differently.
Kelly Ripa spoke up on former Live host Kathie Lee Gifford’s declaration about refusing to read her new book, Live Wire, due to her take on Regis Philbin.
Appearing on the podcast Not Skinny But Not Fat, the mom-of-three shared her take on the matter, calling it a “conundrum” right off the bat.
“I didn’t see the interview, so I tend to not go into deep dives on things I can’t comment on,” she continued, talking about “correcting the record” and controlling the narrative.
“I knew writing the book was going to open me up to all sorts of criticism, but people who read the book have a very different take on those chapters, because they read the book.”
She concluded: “My ultimate comment is…thank you! It’s really hard to sell a book,” adding that any person who would pick up the book would have a different take.
Eventually I’m commenting on vapor here. Kelly’s comments above are based on something she read that Kathie said, which are based on something Kathie read about something Kelly said about something she’d written in her book. Kelly’s got a point – until one of us reads the actual chapter, it’s theory. I don’t think Kathie needed to weigh in on Kelly’s comments about her working relationship with Regis. First of all, Kathie doesn’t know what Kelly said because she’d only read headlines and secondly, people have different relationships with people. Just because Kathie and Regis adored each other doesn’t mean he and Kelly did. But I suggested from the start that Kelly should prepare herself for Kathie and possibly Joy Philbin having something to say about this. Even if I didn’t agree with Kathie, I wasn’t surprised to see her speaking up.
But, as Kelly said, it’s really hard to sell a book and Kathie announcing that she’s not buying a copy probably sold a whole bunch for Kelly. Not sure Kathie thought that through when she entered the conversation.
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Well that made me google to see if Regis had passed yet. He did – in 2020.
I feel certain that Kathie Lee Gifford also had to Google, to see if Reg still was alive. She probably still wanders around, wondering if Frank is still a thing.
Oh, hey, an almost 70 year old, who ABSOLUTELY had her moments with Reg, and then quit, and blah, blah, cheated on, by an old man, came back to Reg…….who is now dead.
Keep on keeping on, Kelly Ripa. We only have to live long enough to see the absolute idiots die before us.
Ugh Kathie lee was very careful on her criticism of Kelly Ripa’s book.
Her main point and I agree was why write about Regis now that he is dead.
She also stated that people have different relationships and she was only commenting on hers with Regis
I watched that show for years even after they kicked Regis off. Unfortunately that is how it seemed to longtime watchers. I stopped watching all together after the Strahan incident which seemed exactly the same as Regis described his relationship with Kelly
Well, it’s Kelly’s memoir, not a biography of Regis; Regis played a big part of her career so of course she’s going to write about that time period. It just wouldn’t make sense not to. And her working relationship with Regis was no doubt very different from Kathie Lee’s. Kathie Lee was older, and married to a man of Regis’ generation & I have no doubt she tolerated a lot from him (or the both of them) that a lot of us wouldn’t.
Why write about Regis now that he is dead?
Are you serious?
See: All of history that wouldn’t be written if we stopped talking about people because they are dead.
I dont know about Kelly.I have heard that Regis was horrible to his first family.Not sure if that is true but if it is,it speaks volumes about his true character.Also,Kathie Lee is just too right winged for me.
I don’t understand the criticism and that she should not be writing about regis because that is a huge chunk of her life. She gets to write about her life and and relationships
I’m meh on Kelly – Sometimes I like her sometimes she annoys the crap out of me
Kelly is annoying in her appeasement of patriarchal values about how women should look, but she works so hard and always has. Plus she’s really good at her job.
Kathie Lee has always been a bad ad for carnival cruises. Not sure why she feels the need to stick her Oral Roberts University nose in everything.
Kelly is the most annoying person. Honestly. Kathie Lee is also annoying on a good day. I just liked Regis
I just want to say that I read Kelly’s book from cover to cover. I have always been a huge fan of Regis, and I watched the show from the very beginning when it was Regis & Kathie Lee. I was upset when Kathie Lee commented on something without reading the book herself because that is just going off hearsay and I always thought Kathie Lee was above that but I’m going to hope that her comments were simply taken out of context and printed for clickbait.
As far as Kelly’s book goes – she does NOT trash Regis or belittle their time together. Kelly simply discusses her experience as a woman working in the media during the 90’s and early 2000’s BEFORE ME TOO. Regis was old school, and Kelly makes it clear in the chapter that she was chosen as the new co-host, Kathie Lee’s replacement, without the support of Regis and the show’s staffers. Kelly discusses how awkward that felt – being the network’s choice and not the stars/staffs – but as Kelly said, it wasn’t Regis or the Live Staff’s choice. Either way, Kelly goes on to talk about her love for Regis but she does compare how her situation is now with Ryan – post ME TOO and of course with Ryan being closer in age to her. Everyone who watched Live with Regis and Kelly saw a loving co-host relationship, but I didn’t care if they went to dinner together every night or on vacations together. Bottom line, there was no trashing or ill speaking of the dead – Kelly was just describing her experience. If you don’t believe me, read the book. It’s an excellent read for the inside baseball stuff regarding how Kelly was chosen for the show – even though that is such a small portion of the book. I’m sad she doesn’t discuss finding Regis’s replacement, but I imagine selecting Michael Strahan went very similarly to how the NETWORK chose Kelly and not Kelly or the Live Staff.
Side note, I had always hoped Jerry O’Connell would replace Regis during the co-host search because he was a wonderful stand-in & had so much to offer with stories of his beautiful family similarly to how Kelly was when she first started on Live. Kelly also gives him a special shout-out in the Acknowledgements which I felt was very nice.
In the top photo, there’s something very childlike about Kelly’s face and I’m not sure what it is. Ideas?