Kelly Ripa Thanks Kathie Lee Gifford For Promising Not To Read Her Memoir

Kelly Ripa has hit back at Kathie Lee Gifford for throwing some shade at her and he upcoming memoir Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories.

The memoir had some passages talking about Ripa’s strained relationship with the late Regis Philbin, her former Live! co-host.

Gifford, who was replaced as host in 2001 by Ripa had said about the book: “I went, ’I hope it isn’t true. I just hope it isn’t.’ Cause what’s the point? You know, I don’t get it, I don’t get it. I’m not gonna read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet.”

Gifford hosted Live! With Philbin from 1985 to 2000, and seemed to take issue with Ripa’s discussion of these difficulties after Philbin’s death in 2020.

“We were absolutely perfect together for television. We never had an argument, not an unkind
word in 15 years. That was my reality,” Gifford also told Rosanna Scotto on Good Day New York.

Ripa responded to the comments in a podcast interview.

“I knew writing a book was going to open me up to all sorts of criticism, right? But people who read the book have a very different take on those chapters [about Regis Philbin] because they read the book,” she said.

Just to clarify for Gifford’s sake, the book was, in fact, published last month by imprint HarperCollins. She admitted in the memoir that while it was “a great privilege” to host the show with Philbin, a talk show legend, “it was not an easy working relationship.”

She recalled that Philbin was often cold to her while working, and even said that she was warned before beginning the show to “make sure you know who your boss is.”

Ripa was also motivated to write about this because people assume that TV co-hosts are always best friends when that is “seldom the case.”

Ripa also recalled being hurt by both fans of the show, and Philbin himself, saying that she had abandoned their relationship after he left the show in 2011.

She also talked about her experiences with aging and plans after she stops hosting Live!, though that’s not happening soon, her relationship with Mark Consuelos and experience being a new empty nester now that her kids are all away from home.