Michael Strahan is opening up about his longtime feud with Kelly Ripa!
As you may recall, the former co-hosts parted ways in 2016 when Strahan left Live! with Kelly and Michael to begin working full-time at Good Morning America. Around this time last year, the former NFL player shared he had not spoken with the 49-year-old “in a long time,” and it seems like that’s still true today.
Related: Here’s Why Kelly Ripa Quit Drinking!
The 48-year-old spoke in length with The New York Times about his four years on the daytime show, specifically speaking about the tension between him and Ripa. Calling his time on the show an “experience,” he divulged:
“One thing I tried to do is have a meeting every few weeks with her. We met a few times, and that was fine. But then eventually she said she didn’t need to meet. Can’t force somebody to do something they don’t want to do.”
He claimed they each did their part to not let offscreen issues impact the dynamic of the series, but it wasn’t always the case and “certain things that were going on behind the scenes just caught up.”
He does admit his exit from the show “could have been handled better,” but ultimately knew “when it was time to go, it was time to go.” Adding that he “remained the same person I was from day one,” the father of four explained his choice to part ways:
“I didn’t wake up and say, ‘I want a job at GMA.’ I was asked to do it by the people who run the network. It was really not a choice. It was a request.”
But it was when the news broke he would be leaving Live! that things got dicey:
“It was treated as if I was the guy who walked in and said, ‘I’m leaving.’ That part was totally misconstrued, mishandled in every way.”
He continued:
“People who should have handled it better have all apologized, but a lot of the damage had already been done. For me, it was like: Move on. Success is the best thing. Just keep on moving.”
His experience in football was a lot like his experience on television, Strahan explained to the outlet:
“But the mental aspect of working in TV is like it was in football. I don’t want to be on the show and feel like everyone else is carrying me. I want us all to be successful. I’ve done things where I went in with team concepts, and I got there and realized it’s not about team. It’s selfish, and I don’t operate well under that.”
However, not everything was the same:
“The stakes are definitely different. Football will be the hardest thing I will ever do when it comes to work, because it requires you, mentally, to take yourself where you never thought you could go physically. That’s not required now.”
He reflected back on past jobs where he has felt like more of a sidekick and less of a partner:
“In sports, you can put as many great players as you want on a team, but if one guy out there is worried about himself, it will not work. Then on television, I’ve had jobs where I got there and felt like: ‘Wow, I didn’t know I was supposed to be a sidekick. I thought I was coming here to be a partner.'”
But he wishes no harm to the mother of three:
“I learned so much from Kelly, so much from [executive producer] Michael Gelman.”
Strahan added:
“If people think, ‘Oh, he hates her’ — I don’t hate her. I do respect her for what she can do at her job. I cannot say enough about how good she is at her job.”
Today, Ryan Seacrest is Kelly’s co-host, and he was easily subbed in following Michael’s departure:
“If you look at the show, it really hasn’t changed since Regis [Philbin] started the damn thing. He created this formula. It’s kind of a plug-and-play. You learn how to craft a story. ‘What did you do last night?’ ‘Oh, I had a glass of water.’ But you learn to tell the story to make it seem like the most interesting glass of water. Those are things that I learned from her. She’s brilliant in that way.”
We wonder how Kelly feels about all this…
[Image via LIVEKellyandRyan/YouTube.]
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