Kelly Ripa’s hotly anticipated memoir is finally out, but Kathie Lee Gifford is going to pass on picking up a copy.
Appearing Monday on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” Gifford said she was taken aback by reports of eyebrow-raising comments that Ripa made in the book about Regis Philbin, their shared talk show co-host.
“I was very sorry to see the headlines,” Gifford said. “I saw that, and I went: ‘Oh, I hope this isn’t true. I just hope it isn’t.’ Because what’s the point? I don’t get it.”
She continued: “I’m not going to read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet. I just know ... what Regis was to me.”
Gifford, an Emmy winner, worked with Philbin on ABC’s “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee” from 1985 to 2000. In 2001, Ripa was named as Gifford’s successor, with the morning talk show renamed “Live With Regis and Kelly.”
Watch Kathie Lee Gifford’s “Good Day New York” interview below.
Gifford joined NBC’s “Today” in 2008 and parted ways with the program in 2019.
In Ripa’s book — “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories,” released in September — she said Philbin’s initial demeanor toward her wasn’t the most welcoming.
“There were good and bad days,” Ripa told People last month. “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.”
Philbin retired from “Live With Regis and Kelly” in 2011, after which he was replaced by a series of co-hosts, including Michael Strahan from 2012 to 2016 and Ryan Seacrest starting in 2017. He died in 2020 at age 88.
As for Philbin’s 2017 suggestion that his relationship with Ripa became strained after his retirement, she told People, “You can’t make a person befriend you.”
In this week’s “Good Day New York” appearance, Gifford said she was concerned over how Philbin’s widow, Joy, would interpret Ripa’s remarks. She also stated that her own relationship with Philbin was a world away from Ripa’s.
“We were dear friends. And after I left the show, for the next 20 years, we became better friends, dearer friends,” she said. “We never had an argument, not an unkind word in 15 years.”
“I’m not going to say anything ugly about anybody,” she continued. “I never have, and I’m not going to start now. I’m just saying my reality is something completely different from that.”