Kelly Ripa shows there’s no bad blood between her and Kathie Lee Gifford.
After the actress made headlines saying she wouldn’t read Ripa’s book Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, the “Live with Kelly and Ryan” reacted to the comments on the “Not Skinny but not Fat” podcast.
“I didn’t see the interview, so I tend to, like, not go into deep dives about things I can’t comment on because I haven’t seen them. And then I write this entire chapter, [which] is about correcting the record in real-time. Do you do it? Should one do it?” Ripa said. “Theoretically, should a person correct the record in real-time or should they not even comment on it? Because here’s the thing, it’s like I talked to the people who read the book. I knew writing a book was going to open me up to all sorts of criticism, right? But people who read the book have a very different take on those chapters because they read the book.”
While Ripa didn’t necessarily agree with GIfford’s views, she believed she had a right to express them.
“You don’t have to read every book. Nobody has to read every book on Earth,” she continued. “The comments I’ve gotten about those chapters have been overwhelmingly positive and the people who read the book took away a lot of positivity from it. It is ironic that it is that chapter where I talk about, ‘What do I do in these situations?’ Do I advance a media narrative with clickbait and all of that stuff? Or do I just drop it?”
Despite any disagreements, she was just glad all the media attention was giving her book buzz.
“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 any 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.”
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She added, “It’s like really hard to get attention on a book that’s been out for a couple of weeks and now it’s week two, second week on The New York Times Best Sellers list. It’s like, thank you, because I think that people that read the book will have a very different take on the book.”
The book contains stories about her experience of working with Gifford’s long-time colleague, the late Regis Philbin.
“That was the hardest chapter to write,” she told People previously. “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.”
The rumours around the chapter led to the comments from Gifford.
“I’m not gonna read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet,” she said on “Good Day New York”.
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“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,” she continued. “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.”
“In all the years I knew him, I never saw him unkind to anyone. I never did,” she added. “If he liked you, he teased you.”
Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories is out now.
