Sam Amico
Kelly Ripa’s early days working at ABC and on Live! with Regis Philbin weren’t always exactly glorious.
Videos by Rare
Ripa, 52, has been the show’s mainstay since the late Philbin left in 2011. She has spoken about some of the difficulties in working with Philbin, at least early, already. (Full post.)
Basically, behind the scenes, she often felt like less than a person who was on her way to TV fame. For starters, she had to negotiate her way into just getting in her own office. Before that, her office was a closet.
Kelly Ripa on Instagram
“It was the strangest experience I’ve ever had in my life. I was told that I couldn’t have an office,” she told Variety. “It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially because there were empty offices that I could have easily occupied.”
Eventually, she at least got a desk.
“It was after my fourth year,” she said, “that they finally cleaned out the closet and put a desk in there for me. And so I was working in the janitor’s closet with a desk so that I could have a place to put things.”
As her popularity began to rise, Ripa said she was granted … drumroll, please … a real office.
“It was very tough,” Ripa added. “Had I known how difficult it would have been, I don’t know that I would have gone for it. I just think my ignorance in that situation wound up being my blessing and my superpower. I did not have an easy time.”
Hasn’t Aged a Day!
Ripa of course has not won the favor of other celebrities for sharing her tough early run. For instance, former Live! co-host Kathy Gifford took exception to Ripa’s comments about the difficulty in working for Philbin.
“I was very sorry to see the headlines” from Ripa’s interviews on Philbin, Gifford told New York City’s Fox 5. “What’s the point?”
Beyond that, Gifford had no further comment.
“I’m not going to say anything ugly about anybody,” Gifford said. “I never have, and I’m not going to start now.”
