Kelly Ripa Recalls ‘Good Days And Bad Days’ With Regis Philbin On ‘Live!’

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Kelly Ripa is opening up about the tensions behind the scenes with her late co-host. In an interview with People about her new memoir, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, the “Live!” host shares the section on joining the show with then-host Regis Philbin was the “hardest chapter to write.” READ MORE: Kelly Ripa And Mark Consuelos’s Daughter Lola To Launch Music Career With New Single Ripa, who had been a soap opera star, joined “Live!” in 2001, replacing Philbin’s departed co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford. “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,” Ripa says of that time. “It took years to earn my place there and earn the things that are routinely given to the men I worked with.

Including an office and a place to put my computer.” She recalls being told she wasn’t allowed to bring “an entourage” to set on her first day, despite only having a hair and makeup person with her. “Uh-oh, Gelman, it’s got an entourage,” she says Philbin remarked to the show’s executive producer, Michael Gelman. “I felt horrible,” Ripa says. “He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on.” She adds, “I understand that probably he didn’t want a cohost, but the network wanted me to be the cohost and I didn’t think I should pass up that opportunity.

I don’t think it was fair to him. But it was also not fair to me.” Over the years, there were “good and bad days,” and Ripa says that she did eventually grow on Philbin, and that she “so enjoyed” the “handful of times” they were able to spend time together off-set. READ MORE: Kelly Ripa Dispels Rumour She Almost Died Having Sex With Husband Mark Consuelos Ripa says