"As a woman we are often [told] to take the high road and that is woman speak for 'shut the f–k up.'"
Kelly Ripa is finally addressing those Regis Philbin rumors.
While appearing on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” Kelly opened up about her relationship with her late co-host and the drama that ensued following his exit after he said the two never spoke after his departure and was never invited back.
“I wish I would have set the record straight in real time,” Kelly revealed that she still gets hate for her alleged behaviors towards Regis.
She continued, “I really trusted the people around me, all of my ‘advisors’ — I don’t even know what that means, but people kept telling me, ‘take the high road, take the high road. You know the truth, it doesn’t really matter…People say all sorts of things that aren’t true, why do you even let it bother you? Who cares?'”
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In her new book, “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories,” Ripa details her side of things with Philbin.
She told host Andy Cohen that she expects people to boycott her book due to the media hate storm she received amid the Regis rumors.
“By letting it hang out there,” she said of not addressing matters at the time. “There are people that are like ‘I will never read this book because all you do is trash Regis’ and it’s the opposite of that.”
“I don’t trash Regis… and I painstakingly wrote every single word of this book and it was hard and those chapters were the hardest in an overall hard process for me,” she added. “As a woman we are often [told] to take the high road and that is woman speak for ‘shut the f–k up.’ That what it is and that’s what it means.”
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In 2017, Philbin appeared on OraTV’s Larry King Now and talked about why he believed the relationship between the two soured after he eventually left the show and retired in 2011. When asked if he kept in touch with Ripa at the time, he said, “Not really, no.”
“She got very offended when I left. She thought I was leaving because of her,” Philbin told King. “I was leaving because I was getting older and it wasn’t right for me anymore.”
He also claimed the show “never once” asked him back on the show after he left.
Ripa, however, previously said she believes the show “reached out many times” to have him make an appearance — and he did in 2015.
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Meanwhile, after working with a slew of co-hosts over her reign on daytime television, Ripa also shared who she would have chosen before Ryan Seacrest signed on to join her on “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
The 51-year-old TV personality revealed a few second picks she had in mind if she was given the opportunity to choose her co-host.
“I love my ACs, of course, but they have jobs,” Kelly said referencing Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper, before mentioning her husband Mark Consuelos. “My MC I love, but he had a job too. At the time he was working in California and then in Vancouver.”
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According to Ripa, she has little say in the selection process, “It’s so much a deeper discussion, and it has so little, actually, to do with me,” she confessed.
Cohen reminded her of her previous interest in working alongside a female-co-host, which is an option Ripa says she would have chosen in a “heartbeat.”
“I would have had a woman in a heartbeat. Like I said, it’s a decision that’s not… I don’t make that decision,” she admitted. “But I have always found the idea of two women hosting a show very appealing.”
“That way they can share the blame,” she joked.
“Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories” is out now.
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