Controversies in the Book World: Kelly Ripa

This is my seventh post in my Miscellaneous section of the blog. Tonight I’m going to talk about the controversy about Kelly Ripa’s new memoir “Live Wire”. While the novel has its fans there has been controversy over it. Some complained about the plethora of curse words being used. Others are calling Kelly Ripa out on how she’s bashing Regis Philbin. I remember reading one Amazon review that said Ripa claimed she and Michael Strahan were “the best of friends”, despite the fact that Kelly was very angry at him for announcing on Live With Kelly and Michael that he was leaving the show to go to Good Morning America. One of the many people bashing the memoir is Kathie Lee Gifford.

Here is what Kathy had to say according to the article from People.com

“I’m not gonna read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet,” she explained. “I just know what Regis was to me. He was, for 15 years, the best partner a person could ever, ever have professionally, but he was my friend.”

“We were dear friends and after I left the show, for the next 20 years, we became better friends, dearer friends. I saw him two weeks before he died and the minute I found out he had passed, I got in my car and drove to their house,” Gifford added.

She said she “was very sorry” to read the headlines about the book, which debuted last month, recounting her reaction: “I saw that and I went, “Oh, I hope this isn’t true. I just hope it isn’t, because what’s the point? I don’t get it.”

“In all the years I knew him, I never saw him unkind to anyone. I never did. If he liked you, he teased you,” Gifford continued.

Gifford’s “first thought” was about Regis’s family, as she prayed, “Lord protect [his wife Joy Philbin] and the girls from this.” She also recalled going through boxes of old memories with Joy after Regis died at age 88 from natural causes in July 2020.

In regards to Ripa’s book, Gifford concluded: I’m not going to say anything ugly about anybody. I never have and I’m not going to start now. My reality is something completely different from that.”

While Kathie never said anything negative about Kelly Ripa herself, her comments are very telling. It’s obvious that Kathie isn’t so thrilled about the memoir and about what Kelly has written in it. Ripa had heard about Kathie Lee’s comments. Below are some of Kelly Rippa’s comments about Kathie Lee’s comments about her memoir.

It’s really hard to sell a book, right? And this is like, week three of the book, right? And I mean, honestly, I’m not gonna lie, I was not reading headlines anywhere. And suddenly all of these headlines pop up and there’s all of this attention on my book,” she said. “So I am a person that tends to take a negative and turn it into a positive. And so my ultimate comment is, thank you.”

Released on Sept. 27, Live Wire contains several stories from Ripa’s personal and professional life. Part of the book details her working relationship with Philbin.

“That was the hardest chapter to write,” she told PEOPLE of penning the sections on Philbin, who died in July 2020 at 88 years old. “I don’t want to feel like I’m slamming anyone or that I’m being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk. It took years to earn my place there and earn the things that are routinely given to the men I worked with. Including an office and a place to put my computer.”

While none of us really knew what happened behind closed doors, I do feel sorry for Regis and his family. Regis’s family probably doesn’t want to hear any negative stuff about him whether it’s true or fabricated. I also feel bad for Regis himself, because he’s dead and he can’t tell his side of what happened. There are many sides to a story and then there is the truth. I’m also curious about Michael Strahan’s reaction to Kelly Ripa’s novel. I initially didn’t like him after how he told Kelly on air that he was leaving her show to be on Good Morning America. I wonder if Strahan left because Ripa was hard to work with behind the scenes.