Kathie Lee Gifford Says She's 'Not Gonna Read' Kelly Ripa's Book: 'What's the Point?'

Kathie Lee Gifford prefers to treasure her own memories of her time with former onscreen partner Regis Philbin.

The Emmy Award winner, 69, admitted she has no plans to read Kelly Ripa's new autobiographical book Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, including the parts about their former mutual co-host, as she appeared Monday on Good Day New York.

"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.

Mike Pont/WireImage; Michael Loccisano/Getty

"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.

RELATED: Kelly Ripa on Her Complicated Relationship with Regis Philbin: 'There Were Good and Bad Days'

J. Michael Dombroski/Newsday RM via Getty Images Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford in April 1988

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' 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.

"[She] said, 'Kathie, I just want you to know that when we saw you for lunch two weeks ago at your house... that's the last time I heard Regis laugh. He went downhill pretty quickly after that,'" Gifford said on Good Day New York. "We always just picked up right where we left off. We were frick and frack, we were the odd couple. We were absolutely perfect together for television. We never had an argument, not an unkind word in 15 years, so that was my reality."

David Russell/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa in 2011

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."

Gifford co-hosted New York's The Morning Show with Philbin since 1985, before leading their own national talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee from 1988 until her departure in 2000. A year later, the rebooted show aired with Ripa, 52, as his co-host.

In Live Wire, Ripa revealed that she only learned of Regis' exit from the show when he announced it next to her "on live TV" in January 2011. "He had his reasons for leaving the show. Nobody gets that more than me," she wrote, adding that she felt "suddenly responsible" for the show's success on her own.

RELATED VIDEO: Kelly Ripa Gets Candid About Everything — From Marriage and Sex to Botox and Regis

Ripa told PEOPLE that the part about Regis was "the hardest chapter to write," recalling that when she got the original offer to co-host, they warned her "to know who your boss is," which she said "was very ominous" and "did not feel good."

She also remembered Regis teasing her about "bringing an entourage," which actually just consisted of two people for hair and makeup, "not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with."

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"There were good and bad days," she said. "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 things that are routinely given to the men I worked with. Including an office and a place to put my computer."

Ripa said she "so enjoyed" the handful of times she spent with Regis off-camera, adding: "I loved him, and I still do."