Kelly Ripa book not on Kathie Lee Gifford's reading list
Kelly Ripa, left, and Kathie Lee Gifford had different working relationships with the late Regis Philbin. Credit: Composite: Eugene Gologursky / Getty Images; Paul Archuleta / Getty Images
Kathie Lee Gifford says that out of respect for her late co-host Regis Philbin and his family, she will not read the new memoir by Kelly Ripa, whose morning show "Live With Kelly and Ryan" is the current successor to Gifford's original "Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee.”
"I was very sorry to see the headlines," Gifford, 69, said Monday on "Good Day New York." "Y'know, we see headlines all the time and you never know what's true and what's not true,” she added, saying, "I'm not going to read the book. I haven't read it. I don't even know if it's out yet."
In "Live Wire," released Sept. 27, Ripa recalls an affectionate but complicated relationship with Philbin, whom she believes wanted no co-host following Gifford's departure in 2000. Gifford, who had first teamed with him on WABC/7's "The Morning Show" in 1985, went on to their namesake syndicated program that launched in 1988.
"I loved him, and I still do," wrote Ripa, who joined Philbin in 2001 for the retitled "Live! With Regis and Kelly”; he retired in 2011 and died at age 88 in 2020. But, "There were good and bad days," she stated. "I don't want to feel like I'm slamming anyone or that I'm being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk. It took years to earn my place there and earn things that are routinely given to the men I worked with. Including an office and a place to put my computer."
Countered Gifford, "I know what Regis was to me. … He was, for 15 years, the best partner a person could ever, ever have professionally. … 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, and [Philbin's wife] Joy said to me … 'Kathie, I just want you to know that when we saw you for lunch two weeks ago at your house … that's the last time I heard Regis laugh.' "
Gifford went on to say, "We were absolutely perfect together for television. We never had an argument, not an unkind word in 15 years, so that was my reality."
