Kelly Ripais looking back at her complicated relationship with former co-hostRegis Philbin.
According to Ripa, the excerpts about Philbin were “the hardest chapter to write.”
“I don’t want to feel like I’m slamming anyone or that I’m being disrespectful.
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa on ‘Live With Regis and Kelly’.Bennett Raglin/WireImage
But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk.”
“Including an office and a place to put my computer.”
She recounts, “I came with hair and makeup.
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa co-hosting ‘Live With Regis and Kelly’.Spencer Platt/Newsmakers
It was not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with.”
“I felt horrible,” Ripa shares.
“He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on.
I don’t think it was fair to him.
But it was also not fair to me.”
“Off camera and outside of that building, it was a different thing,” she says.
“The handful of times we spent together, I so enjoyed.
I never laughed so hard.”
“If I could become a tenth as good, I’d be happy,” she says.
I loved him, and I still do."
Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Storiesis out Sept. 27.
