Kelly Ripa is known for keeping fans very in the know when it comes to her personal life. I mean hello — how many times have we seen Kelly post an NSFW selfie with her l ongtime hubby, Marc Consuelos ? However, when it comes to her professional life, Kelly is pretty tight-lipped.
Now, for the first time, Kelly is breaking down her relationship with the late Regis Philbin in her new tell-all book, Live Wire .
As fans of the daytime talk show host know, Kelly Ripa was placed as the cohost of “Live With Regis and Kelly” in 2001 to replace Regis’ longtime partner in crime, Kathie Lee Gifford.
The pair worked together for 10 years before Regis left the show in 2011.
“I had and still have enormous respect, admiration and reverence for Regis,” the 51-year-old told ET.
“I, like most of the viewing public, felt like I knew him, but to expect two people from such different generations to have some sort of weird, forced friendship when they never knew each other is a very strange thing to put on one person. “
“It was only put on one person and that is how I describe it [in the book].”
She goes on to say she and her late co-host had “a very professional working relationship” during their decade on-air together.
I think that sounds fair enough, right?
“That used to be a celebrated thing, but in this weird, gonzo, tabloid, let’s pit the man against the woman world we live in, somehow that was strange and I was vilified,” she told the outlet.
“That’s why I address it in the book. We had a professional working relationship and that’s what we had and that’s OK, because we are from different generations, we had different friend groups and we had different professional backgrounds.”
As for her transition from the world of soap opera acting to morning show hosting, the mom of 3 admitted it wasn’t easy at first.
“It took me five years to learn to look into the camera, because I was trained to never break the fourth wall. I am coming from the acting world, so there is no class for this, they didn’t teach me how to do this. You learn on the job.”
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Well, it’s safe to say she’s done a great job in the now 21 YEARS she’s been hosting!
h/t: ET