Meredith Vieira is missing her friend Regis Philbin, who passed away at age 88 on July 24.
Speaking with PeopleNow, Vieira looked back on her long relationship with the legendary TV host.
“Well, the obvious [thing] that everyone will miss is, he was the constant entertainer. He’s in a league by himself or with just a handful of folks through the years. He was so good at conversation, so good at listening and such a great listener,” said Vieira, 66.
“But what I will miss the most is his kindness,” she continued, recalling that Philbin “never forgot that he was this kid from the Bronx.”
Recalling Philbin, she described the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” host as “a humble guy even though he always laughed about ‘Regis did this’ or ‘Regis did that.’ He at his heart, he was poking fun at himself,” she added. “He was just a good guy.”
When she was hired to host her own daytime talk show in 2014, “The Meredith Vieira Show”, Philbin was one of the first people she heard from.
“It’s really hard to launch a talk show, really, really hard — and hard to get people to come on. Is it going to be good, is it not? Nobody wants to be the one to step into the pool first,” Vieira explained. “Regis was one of the first people who called me and said ‘What do you need? I’m there.’ [He] didn’t have to do that. He did it because I think he knew what it was like. He wanted to show his support.”
She added: “That’s who he was and I will miss that a lot. There are a lot of great people in this industry but there are a lot that, like in anything, maybe don’t wish you well. Regis wished everybody well.”
