Kelly Ripa Ends Boycott After Tough Talks With ABC, Will Return To ‘Live’ Alongside Michael Strahan On Tuesday

Kelly Ripa’s boycott of Live! With Kelly and Michael has ended.

According to TMZ, Ripa will be back on Live alongside co-host Michael Strahan on Tuesday, thereby ending ABC/Disney’s daytime nightmare that started with her “storming out” of the room after she was belatedly informed of Strahan’s departure from Live for ABC’s better-rated morning show, Good Morning America, during a closed-door meeting.

Ripa, who has been on the show since 2001, was reportedly upset with the way Live‘s executive producer, Michael Gelman, and WABC general manager Dave Davis, had colluded to keep her in the dark about Michael Strahan’s pending departure from Live. The former NFL star, who teamed up with Kelly Ripa in 2012 having replaced the show’s original male co-host, Regis Philbin, will join Good Morning America full-time this fall.

In the saga that unfolded over the whole of this week, Ripa did not appear on the show, and kept her distance from the press. According to L.A. Times, she was last seen leaving her Manhattan apartment on Wednesday with a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.

She then left for an already-scheduled holiday with her husband Mark Consuelos and their children to celebrate the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary.

However, now multiple sources confirm that Kelly Ripa will be back Tuesday alongside Michael Strahan on Live. Her decision to end the boycott comes after “tough” negotiations with ABC and Disney honchos. Although Ripa wasn’t physically present during the negotiations, it is believed that the fate of her show and the tenure of her co-host were two of the things discussed in the meeting between her representatives and the upper brass of ABC.

Reports suggest that Kelly was given enough assurance that the fate of Live wasn’t itself in jeopardy, while she was also believed to have been assured of being consulted before choosing the next co-host who will partner her once Michael Strahan packs his bags for Good Morning America.

In a letter that Kelly Ripa wrote to the staff of Live on Friday night, she said she was looking forward to being back on the show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“(Sorry for this late Friday night email). I wanted to thank you all for giving me the time to process this new information. Your kindness, support, and love has overwhelmed me. We are a family and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday morning. Love, Kelly.”

#MichaelStrahan totally blindsided #KellyRipa! https://t.co/vsrt4GqQhF pic.twitter.com/P5ErGnVZmT

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) April 19, 2016

But while Kelly seems to be satisfied with the negotiations, ABC sources told TMZ that she would be happy to see the back of Michael Strahan even before September. Reports suggest that the two co-hosts are extremely uncomfortable continuing the show together with what has transpired over the last week, and certain media organizations reported that the feud between Michael and Kelly has been brewing for almost two years now.

It could be possible that what happened with Live! With Kelly and Michael was a natural manifestation of two colleagues not enjoying working with each other. While the mainstream media appears keen on painting the entire saga as the result of an overblown reaction of a “diva” (read: Kelly), it should be quite easy to grasp the fact that Michael and Kelly just did not get along with each other, and it was only a matter of time before Live was given either a makeover, or terminated completely.

The fact that the top brass of ABC/Disney appears to have involuntarily accentuated the rift between the co-hosts, speaks volumes about the inefficiency of the management, than it does about the professionalism of Kelly Ripa itself.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]