Kelly Ripa Calls Her Friendship With Regis Philbin 'Complicated'

"There were good and bad days," she said.

Few talk show hosts are as iconic as the duo that was Kelly Ripa and the late Regis Philbin.

But despite how effortless their on-screen chemistry seemed, Ripa, now 51, revealed Live With Regis and Kelly was not easy.

While discussing her new book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, she told People, "There were good and bad days," referencing her decade-long tenure co-hosting the morning talk show with Philbin.

Ripa explained that it was a struggle to get along with her co-host initially. She claimed to have been treated much differently from Philbin, even though they were supposedly equals.

"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 continued: "The biggest misconception is that it all came easily, people think I just showed up one day and was handed a job, and I lived happily ever after, and now everything's perfect. But it never is that way."

After Kathie Lee Gifford departed the show, Ripa co-hosted a few episodes as a special guest star. After her third time as a guest co-host and countless comments telling her that the show was not looking for a second, permanent host, Ripa was finally made an offer–but it came with a warning: "They want you to know who your boss is."

"It was very ominous, and it did not feel good," she told the outlet.

Ripa eventually joined the production full-time in 2001, and after Philbin retired in 2011, she later took it over with Ryan Seacrest.

But first impressions are everything, and the show certainly left a tricky one on Ripa.

She later told interviewers that her agent also mentioned that the show didn't want her "bringing an entourage," so, on her first day on set as a permanent co-host, she only brought two people.

"I came with hair and makeup," she recalled. "It was not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with."

But before she walked on stage, Philbin greeted her and the show's executive producer, Michael Gelman, with: "Uh-oh, Gelman, it's got an entourage."

"I felt horrible," she admitted. "He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time, it felt like a pile-on. I understand that probably he didn't want a co-host, but the network wanted me to be the co-host and I didn't think I should pass up that opportunity. I don't think it was fair to him. But it was also not fair to me."

Ripa also admitted that despite their rocky start as coworkers, she enjoyed spending time with Philbin outside the studio.

"Off camera and outside of that building, it was a different thing," she revealed. "The handful of times we spent together, I so enjoyed. We went to the same resort once on vacation, and he came to a dinner I hosted—one of the favorite nights of my life. I never laughed so hard."

Ripa held no hard feelings over their past; she credited him with teaching her everything she knows about the business and still considers Philbin "the world's best storyteller."

"If I could become a tenth as good, I'd be happy," she admitted. "It's taking the audience on a ride with you and remembering that you are always the butt of the joke."

She noted: "I loved him, and I still do."

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