Michael Strahan will depart Live! on Friday, bidding farewell to the show that jump started his post-football career and moving on to a full-time Good Morning America gig.
In response, Kelly Ripa is all broken up.
She’s sad. She’s despondent. She’s practically begging Strahan to stick around and opening up her arms to him every morning before work.
No… wait. We take that back.
It’s actually the exact opposite.
According to TMZ, Ripa isn’t making any attempt backstage to hide her disdain for her soon-to-be former co-host.
Prior to Ripa learning (at the last moment) that Strahan was leaving the show, and subsequently went on a mini protest of her own, the former soap opera actress would keep her makeup door open each morning, a source claims.
She would happily greet Strahan prior to each episode and the two would chat for a bit.
But not any longer.
Now, TMZ confirms that Ripa’s door is closed on a daily basis, most likely because she’s sending a message to Strahan.
And that message is pretty much this: you suck. I can’t wait for you to be gone from my life.
The tension between Ripa and Strahan has been evident on air ever since Kelly returned from her self-imposed hiatus a couple weeks ago.
There was the time she brought up her colleague’s divorce out of nowhere, much to Strahan’s chagrin:
And there the time these two awkwardly celebrated their Daytime Emmy Awards victory, despite clearly not liking each other:
Insiders also say that Strahan’s final show will be fairly low-key. There will be a few flashback segments, but nothing too sentimental.
That’s probably because Strahan and Ripa hate each other.
We’ll be tuning in for Strahan’s final show on Friday, just to see how strained the goodbye comes across on live television. Will you?
