“Absolutely no talking off-camera”: Kelly Ripa’s Strange Relationship With Long Time co-host Regis Philbin Questions their Friendship Outside Work
Earlier, Regis Philbin revealed about why he hasn’t talked to his former Live! co-host, Kelly Ripa after he left the show back in 2011. More surprisingly it is also revealed that the pair didn’t speak much on set either, according to Kelly Ripa. In a recent interview, she stated that the former co-host had a mandate that there was to be no talking off-camera.
It seems like she is on so much better terms with her new co-host Ryan Seacrest especially compared to her somehow bad relationships with Regis and former co-host Michael Strahan. According to the reports by New York Times, the two are good friends and will stay in touch with each other and they even hang out when they’re not filming. Kelly also praised her new co-host as the future of the franchise and the future of ABC.
Kelly Ripa Says Working With Former ‘Live!’ Co-host Regis Philbin Was Not Easy
Even though Kelly Ripa had to say a sad goodbye to her co-host, he hinted that their relationship was not so smooth during an interview with Larry King Now last February. Regis Philbin said:
“She got very offended when I left. She thought I was leaving because of her, I was leaving because I was getting older and it wasn’t right for me anymore.”
Previously also Kelly Ripa talked openly about her complicated relationship with the late Regis Philbin, but in an interview with People she also said it was difficult when she wrote about working with Regis Philbin in her new book known as “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories.” In 2020, he passed at the age of 88 of natural causes. Kelly Ripa also added that she doesn’t want to feel like being disrespectful or putting someone down, but she wants people to know that working with Regis Philbin wasn’t easy.
Why Regis Philbin Didn’t Talk to Kelly Ripa Before the Shows
The former talk show host, who passed away in 2020, had been hosting the show since the early 1980s, so when he told the world he was retiring on-air, she remembered it was an out-of-body experience for her. According to the sources she described that:
“It’s still an out-of-body experience thinking back to it, I remember looking at Lori Schulweis — one of our producers, and I would consider her the closest person to Regis — because I thought, this is one of those scenarios where everyone knew except for me. I looked at her, and she was sobbing. And that’s when I knew that nobody knew.”
One statement that stuck out for a lot of fans is why the late co-host refused to talk to Kelly Ripa before the shows. She told the publication that “Regis had a mandate: Absolutely no talking off-camera.” Sources say he had almost a superstition about it and he use to save the talks for the show. Regis Philbin said he wanted the interaction between him and his co-host to be spontaneous and he felt the best way to be spontaneous was to refrain from talking before the show.
Source: usmagazine.com
