It’s been six years since Michael Strahan left the “Live With Kelly and Michael” to join “Good Morning America.” It was a bit of a messy departing, In fact, Strahan wound up leaving three months earlier than originally planned, and co-host Kelly Ripa was so blindsided that he chose to leave, that she took a week-long hiatus from the show after it happened.
When she came back, she acknowledged why she left—but it was vague. “I needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts; after 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” Ripa had told her audience at the time after returning to the show. “(This) started a much greater conversation about communication, and consideration, and most importantly respect in the workplace … apologies have been made.”
Strahan may have said sorry that he left, but he and Ripa definitely don’t have the same relationship as they did while hosting the show.
Only recently did Strahan open up a can of worms about how the show ended years prior, and about his relationship with Ripa—or should we say his non-relationship with her.
According to Strahan’s interview with Time, he and Ripa’s friendship never recovered after he left. In fact, the two don’t really speak to each other anymore.
“I learned through all that went down with that, you can’t convince people to like you,” he said in his interview. “I haven’t spoken to her in a long time.”
Today, the two are still doing their own same morning shows—Ripa on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (thanks to Ryan Seacrest signing on to be the show’s co-host in 2017) and Strahan on Good Morning America. He and Sara Haines host the third hour of the morning show, which runs in the early afternoon.
In a prior interview with Deadline, Strahan hinted that there were some issues with Ripa behind the stage while they were still hosting—ones that were beyond his control.
I remained the same person I was from Day 1. One thing I will not do is alter my attitude for somebody else’s. I learned so much from Kelly, so much from (executive producer) Michael Gelman. When it was time to go, it was time to go. Certain things that were going on behind the scenes just caught up.”
Which show do you prefer—Live with Kelly and Ryan, or Good Morning America? Did you know Strahan and Ripa had such a falin gout