Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin won’t be exchanging Christmas cards anytime soon, Howard Stern claims.
In a recent episode of his SiriusXM show, Stern and guest Jimmy Kimmel brought up the topic of the behind-the-scenes drama that has played out over Live! with Kelly and Ryan , the show that Philbin founded three decades before as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee . As Radar Online recounted, Stern questioned why Philbin was pushed out of the show so quickly in 2011, saying that ABC should have given him at least another year.
Kimmel suggested he broach the topic on the show itself, leading Stern to claim that Ripa still harbors ill feelings toward Philbin for the way he left the show.
“I’m sure that will go over big. Kelly I don’t think likes Regis. That’s the thing. They have a war,” Stern said.
“I think it is true, and I think she would say that it’s true,” the radio host added. “They don’t talk or anything as far as I know. I thought it was an issue where Kelly felt that she should’ve been told by Regis that he was leaving the show.”
Kimmel pointed out that Philbin didn’t leave under his own accord, suggesting that the bad blood must have come from some other source.
But that was exactly what Philbin suggested during a 2017 interview with Larry King. Philbin suggested that Ripa was upset when he departed the show and assumed it was because of her, though Philbin said that wasn’t true.
“She got very offended when I left. She thought I was leaving because of her,” Philbin said, via Us Weekly . “I was leaving because I was getting older, and it wasn’t right for me anymore.”
This would not be the first time that Ripa was involved in some drama related to a departing co-host. When Philbin’s replacement, former New York Giants legend Michael Strahan, left the show in 2016 after a surprise announcement. Strahan moved over to the competing Good Morning America as a co-host, and Ripa was reportedly floored by the development.
As Us Weekly noted, the two had a frosty relationship for the final weeks of Strahan’s tenure on the show, which included Ripa taking a day off after the announcement and then returning with a biting monologue about respect in the workplace.
Kelly Ripa has never spoken publicly about her alleged bad blood with Regis Philbin.
