Regis Philbin departedLive! with Regis and Kelly back in 2011, but his friendship with co-host, Kelly Ripa has not been the same since.
In a new interview with Larry King, the 85-year-old opened up about his strained friendship with Ripa, who seemed to think his departure was linked to her.
When quizzed by King whether he remained in contact with Kelly, Philbin replied, “Not really, no.”
King pressed further to get closer to the cause of the breakdown in their relationship.
“She got very offended when I left. She thought I was leaving because of her,” Philbin revealed.
“I was leaving because I was getting older and that wasn’t right for me anymore.”
Regis did feel like his exit was taken personally by his co-star.
“That was 11 years ago, and I…”
In the above clip, you can hear Larry stepping in with, “Haven’t heard?”
Regis agreed that he had not heard from her.
Another talking point for the duo was whether Philbin had been asked back as a guest host. He revealed that he was “never once” asked back.
He then went on to speculate on what his potential involvement could be.
“I don’t know. How often would it be? Would it be every night? Every day?” said Philbin.
“I do miss it. There are times when I really miss it and wish I’d never stopped. But, you know, I just figured it was time to let go.”
As you probably already know, Regis is not the only co-host who has a broken relationship with Kelly.
Michael Strahan succeeded Philbin in 2012, but made headlines in April 2016 when he announced he was leaving the show to defect to Good Morning America.
The animosity between Ripa and Strahan appeared to stem from Ripa not being made aware of Strahan’s departure in advance.
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