Kelly Ripa Says Working With Former ‘Live!’ Co-Host Regis Philbin ‘Was Not a Cakewalk’
thewrap.com“People,” Kelly Ripa opened up about her relationship with former “Live!” co-host Regis Philbin while discussing her new book, “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories.”The 51-year-old television host, who worked with Philbin from 2001 to 2011 after replacing Kathie Lee Gifford, told “People” that the pages about her dynamic with Philbin made up “the hardest chapter” for her to write.“There were good and bad days,” she said of the decade she spent co-hosting “Live!
With Regis and Kelly.” “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.”Ripa joined the daytime talk show in 2001 after Lee Gifford departed the gig co-hosting with Philbin after 15 years.“The biggest misconception is that it all came easily,” Ripa says. “People think I just showed up one day and was handed a job and I lived happily ever after and now everything’s perfect.
But it never is that way.”Ripa’s agent alerted her of what was to come after she guest co-hosted three times, each time being told that the show wasn’t searching for a permanent co-host.
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