Kelly Ripa, reformed people-pleaser, is here to set the record straight

now with Ryan Seacrest, Good Morning, Good Morning. On the show and in person, Kelly has always been funny, warm and self effacing, and it turns out she's exactly the same way as a writer. Her first book, a collection of memoir ish essays called Live Wire, Long Witted Short Stories, is out now, and we have such a fun time chatting about her career, her family, and the curious ways our worlds and jobs have overlapped. So enjoy. Can I just say, I'm so excited to see you. I loved

your book. Thank you. How meaningful it is when someone says, sincerely and honestly that they loved your book because I felt like I got to know you better. I just really enjoyed being in your world. I thought you were so funny because well, obviously you're really funny. Your last chapters honestly made me cry because made me think of my kids. You write all about Cindy walking off and kind of being in this space of your life as an empty nester. So I'm really I'm really excited to

be here to talk to you about it. And I think one of the things, one of the many things I learned about you in the book, Kelly, is that you're actually introverted, um, and you're shy, and you don't really love social occasions. And then I thought about the times, you know, the occasions I have had the opportunity to be with you socially, and I thought, oh, that's so funny, because Kelly is actually kind of shy and and and

not super um outgoing at these at these things. And it made me realize, you know, everybody's sort of insecure, and I feel shy sometimes at these I do I feel um, you know, I I feel once in a while kind of just uncomfortable in my skin, or you know, or people do I have somebody to talk to? You know, all those things that I think everybody feels, no matter who you are. But the fact that that you're kind of agoraphobic. Actually, what was was really surprising to me.

It's funny, I almost as you now know from knowing me. I think that the two times I went out this year, you were at both both events big events. Um, I am really just a home body. Um, I come from a family of home bodies. It's I think it's definitely like a hereditary skill set. But I also think it's sort of how you're wired, don't you. Yeah, I'm hard wired to just prefer the comfort of under my bed, I mean under the sheets, I mean hiding under my bed.

But I also would think, Kelly, so much of your job is being out there and being outspoken and being and sharing that when you have your alone time, you don't necessarily want to be like black. Yeah, I just feel like there's uh as you know, when you host a morning show, you're in people's houses every day. They get to see you. You know. I think it is high honored to be welcomed into people's living rooms and breakfast tables. Still in this day and age, with so

many other options. The fact that we are still chugging away and we're still there and people are still welcoming us is a high honor. I don't take that for granted. It's not lost on me that there are so many other choices they could make, but they still tune in for us. But at the end of the day, I'm like, okay, and now people need a break from me. So I try to, you know, be as invisible as possible when

I'm not there, you know what I mean. So I don't go to movie premiers and I don't go to fashion events, and I don't go to all of that stuff because I value my off time, but I also value like giving America needs a break. I don't know if people feel that way, but I think it's also because it's been very important for you to have some separation between your home life and your work life. Yeah, I've always prioritized my home life the most most because

I feel like that's where my real work was. You know, I wanted to and I'm very much like you. I know, you and I were frequently the only moms at the track field, the only you felt like winter but it was fall and we'd be the only ones standing there. Because I feel like when you're a working woman and sometimes the morning routine you have to miss a lot. You are forced to miss a lot, so those events

that you can attend, you are super attentive. Right And at the end of the day, I was really trying to raise good people, responsible people, conscientious people, and I feel like we are, you know, in that respect. Thank god. I take nothing for granted, but so far they've really held up their end of the bargain. Well, I like that that quote from Jackie Kennedy that says, if you bungle you raise and your kids, nothing else really matters. And it sounds like you and Mark have done a

great job raising good human beings. We've been very fortunate, you know, but you well, I think it also put the work good Yeah, you put the work, and it comes from good parenting. And we had good parents. I mean, our parents are I mean, they're very lucky, and you're so lucky. Although your mom I wondered if she I felt like you didn't write about your mom that much, and and uh, and I I wish I had gotten

a little more sense of your mom. You thanked her at the end of the book, but I thought it was funny when you told her you wanted you were going to go to therapy. She said, you're gonna spend a lot of money trashing me basically, basically, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think generationally my mom was too. I think nobody even knew about therapy, much less talked about it from our parents generations. But I wondered if your mom like wanted you to write a little bit more about So

I'll give you the heads up on my mom. Kelly gives us the lowdown on her mom and why she chose not to write about her in this book that's right after this, So I'll give you the heads up on my mom. Number one. Let me just say this is not a memoir. Have short stories. So you know, if I ever do, if I ever do crawl out of the whole of being overwhelmed from writing this book, of course I would write about my mom. In totality. My mom is very much like everything I wrote about her.

I would read to her and then she'd be like, get rid of that, get rid of this, get rid of Like she didn't want me to talk about her at all. She's like she takes my introversion and turns it like a hundred degrees up. Um. But when I asked her, because we're currently living with my parents, right now, which is funny because she's great, she's doing so well. She had heart surgery, she's she's making such an amazing recovery.

Her doctors and nurses have been extraordinary. And it's very funny because you go from empty nesters and then suddenly like your nest is full. But older people who are like them, it's so nice. It's nice for all of us. We're really enjoying their characters. And so I said to my mom, um, Mom, have you read my book yet? And she said, no, I'm not going to read your sex book. I said, what what are you talking about? What?

I didn't write a sex book. She goes, well, not according and now right away, I know that my aunts are sending her the headlines right from whatever Google alert or whatever it is. Right So she said, you've written a sex book book, and I don't want to read about you doing you know what with you know who. And I said, it's not a sex book. As a matter of fact, there's very little sex in this book. It's just too advance a story in in the order in which it happened, and and and and I and

there's a disclaimer at that chapter. If you're related to me, in any way, Please skip to the next chapter, don't read this. You know. So, I'm very conscientious in writing, but she proved my most challenging, almost as challenging as my daughter Lola, who wanted me to take out any and all references to her um But so you know it's I wrote this very thoughtfully with people in mind, and I didn't want to put in anything that they found objectionable. So you know, that's why there's not so

much of my mom, because she was not funny. I don't know your mom, but I was like, I feel a little protective, I guess because of course I think you all obviously have this. This great my mom is. My mom is the probably the funniest person any of us will ever know. But I don't even think she thinks she's funny. She's being completely serious and deadpan about

everything she says. Well, why you know, you say it's not a memoir, It is a collection of short stories, UM stories, And I love the title and this secondary title, whatever you call it. How did you find the connective tissue that would you know? First of all, I guess enabled you to pick what you were going to write about. But that would make sense for the reader. So there were two hundred more pages in this chapter, and a

lot was cut out. I mean in the book, in the I mean in the in the book forgive me. In the book, there were two hundred more pages. So there's a lot that was taken out. My editor, Carrie Thornton, God love her, this woman. She stacked the book. I had the book completely stacked differently. I had it more chronological and in its order. And she said, let me stack these chapters the way I feel they connect, because

you're too close to this book at this point. I really wanted to start backwards with the last chapter and work my way to the beginning. And she was like you now, because you've written, now you think you're also an editor and you don't know what you're doing. And I said, did you read the chapter on asshole syndrome? Now I'm an editor too. It's like anything I if

I see it, then I believe that I can do it. Um. And I you know, having read so many great books by so many great authors, yours included, I you know, I mean, thank god, And I think I told you this when you came on my show. Thank God your book came out. When I had essentially finished my book, because if I had read your book, I wouldn't have written my book. Does that makes no? I wouldn't I would. I would have been like, I can't. I'll never read

a decent word in my life. I'll never write anything decent. It's not good. It's not. But ignorance really is bliss sometimes, and so I like blissfully and ignorantly went into this saying I've read books, therefore I can write books. Well, you know, I think you sell your yourself short Kelly. First of all, I think you're really fun clever writer. I wish I had dog eared some of the pages because um, you know, it's very uniquely you. So I don't want you to sell yourself short that way. Well,

it's funny. I would send the chapters as I would write them, and some of them were written and rewritten and re rewritten, like I'm sure you felt the same way. I would write a chapter five or six times before I found it right, and I would send it to Mark, who was mercifully living in Vancouver at the time. So he people are will say to him, you know, was it hard for you while she was writing this book?

And he says no, she was great, And I said, he has no idea how insufferable I was, you know, for our forty five minute discussions a day, I would turn on all the charm and try to hide the hideousness of the self doubt and the and the me pacing around the bedroom and trying to like construct a sentence. But I would send the chapters to Mark first. He was sort of my pre editor, and he would call me back face time, me back, and he would say, wow,

I thought this chapter was going to be about something else. Entirely. I didn't see that coming. And that's when I would know I got it right. You know. I waited for him to say, oh my gosh, the it's the funniest thing, or how did you remember that? How do you recall that? And I would say, you know, when I write in those journals at night, and you think that I'm just like making lists of things I have to do, it's

that's what I'm doing. I'm actually writing down the things that I want to remember for And it was Andy Cohen who told me to do that many years ago, years and years ago. I remember Jean Chalotte. I think I might have mentioned this in my book. I can't even remember Jilly, what's in it? What's not that that? Jane Shallotte said you should talk into a tape recorder

when I got my job on the Today Show. He said, every day talking to a tape recorder, just talk about like what the day was like, what an interview was like. I was like, Jane, that is such a good idea, And of course I never did it. And I'm not a journal er either, so it was but thank God for the Internet because I could retrieve so much. Thank god I'm a pack rat because I could look back on speeches and my calendars and all sorts of other

things that reminded me. But Andy was a really good friend to have you do that, and I'm sure it was extremely helpful in writing the book. I wanted to ask you about Mark because obviously you guys have an incredible relationship UM, which is so nice, so nice to see, and I know you wrote about you know, we were not supposed to make it and people in show business, but I do think you guys are both um very much mired in your respective values of your families and UM.

But I did laugh at when you first met him, and it was when you were on all my children, and he was coming in to audition for and you saw his head shot and basically he had you at not even Hello. There was the head she had me at Mark and Sulo's actor. And then you come out in curlers. I think you had zip medicine, had toothpaste at toothpaste because I tried every other remedy, and I had show curlers too. I had those giant velcrow rollers,

you know, the ones that looked like coke. So I had those because you know, we always say like on a soap opera, the bigger the hair, closer to Emmy's. Yeah, clo you get. So I had these coke bottle rollers. And it didn't have any makeup on because I was like, for some reason, my scenes were at the end of the day and it's like it's not a first come, first serve. It's like, whoever is up first, you're in

makeup first. So no makeup on. It is giant pimple because why wouldn't I and I had covered it with cold Gate toothpaste, but cold Gate on. We decided for some reason at the soap that cogate was the best for getting rid of zits. When all else fails. Um right, and so I walk in and he is there because he was brand new to show business. He had never auditioned for anything, and here he was screen testing for a soap opera and he had no idea what a

screen test was, the same as me. When I screen tested, I thought it was a written exam. And I'm not kidding, and you you know how you yes? I mean, I'm no longer at that place in my life where when now I'm brave enough to say no, I'm sorry. I don't know who or what you're talking. And I also love that you've discovered how to say no that doesn't work for me, that which I can't really do. But we'll talk about that in a minute. I send you my therapist and she'll make you practice in front of

a mirror. You know, you can't even say no, I'm sorry. That doesn't work for me. You know, take that I'm sorry out, But you tried to. I can't do that. No. No, I learned how to do it, but it took. And I'm not kidding. No, that doesn't work for me. That doesn't it's but it's not it's not cold or mean. It's something that people say to us all the time. Um, they're usually men. And then there's and so you so

we Uh. I think it's not just the nature of our business because as I've been on a book tour, so I'm meeting I'm meeting people from all sorts of industries that I had really dialed into that particular chapter. Um, because they are utilizing my no, that doesn't work for me. And guess what, you know, this is free advice. It's not a self help book, but this is free advice. I spent thousands of dollars on therapy to learn to say no that doesn't work for me. But again, it

was hard for me. I had to practice and practice. I kept saying no, I'm so sorry, and she would maybe ask me next year, asked me, yes, ask me in a year, because they will, they'll ask you in a year. They market down. Even my husband was like, don't say that, because they're going to come back and you have to say no again exactly. And so I was in this place where I was saying yes, yes, yes, or oh my gosh, I'm so sorry that doesn't work

because I have seven other conflicts. But you know, if there's some other day, oh yes, we'll work around your schedule. You tell us what day you don't have EIGHTI seven other things. So when you say no, that doesn't work for me, it sort of stops any and all advancement of any other conversation. And it works like a charm every single It works a hundred percent of the time. A hundred percent of the time. All Right, I'm going to try it. Alright, No, that doesn't work for me.

You're going to have to practice it in the mirror. I can see you already vacillating. You're formulating that. I'm so sosign a pleaser. I understand, and I too, am a reformed pleaser. It's like there should be a self helpleaser. Is anymous pleaser is anonymous? P My name is Katie, and I'm a pleaser. Katie, Katie. By getting back to Mark and the cold gate on your face, did you really do a tap dance when you first saw him?

I mean I did tap dance. You kind of were like, know, I mean it was that was what I was doing. It was like, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, I really said to him. I vomited words at him. He was spell bound a good way and not in a good way. He was spell bound, and and he doesn't recall what I looked like at all. He always goes back to I was just trying to get a job, and I was warned that actors were strange, and so you just seem like a strange actor. And I was like,

did I you know? But I was so um, I don't know. I wanted to engage him in some way and let him know that, you know, I look at how low maintenance I am with I'm the girl with the cold gate on her face and the Cooke bottle rollers in her hair. Totally uh, totally comfortable with my future husband seeing me this way. Isn't that funny? But it's wonderful that you know that you guys did connect that he wasn't like security. Yeah exactly. I mean, first

of all, he should have filed a restraining order. But second of all, it was this weird thing where I knew again I'm not a believer in love at first sight. I've never been a hopeless romantic. I'm like, very pragmatic. I'm a practical lady, you know. Uh, And I've never It's so funny. I never decorated a dressing room ever in my life until like my fifteenth year at Live.

My fifteenth year at Live, I decorated my dressing room because I was like, I think they're gonna think They're probably just going to carry me out, or maybe TV will end. I don't know. But I was so practical. I never wanted to keep things around that I would have to pack into a box and leave, you know what I mean. It felt like a waste of time. So people would always walk into my dressing room and say, is your dressing room being redecorated? And I'd say, no,

this is my dressing room. Why why do you ask? It's so barren and terrifying looking. And I said, well, you never know. Every day could be your last day. Um. So to be a person that suddenly found themselves dreaming that I was married to this person, this complete stranger, and that we were flying to Rome together on an airplane with a baby made no sense. And then I the next day at the screen test, as I talked about in the book, I vomited that out at him. I said, I had a dream, you know, I had

a dream, dream baby, okay? Um? And so I told him about this dream and he was so non threatened and grown up about the whole thing, and he sort of just and you know, the room fell into a hush. There were ten other guys. They're also auditioning for the role of Matteo, who seemed spellbound by this conversation. He was like not even halfway paying attention. He was writing down, blocking and taking notes. And I said, remember me from yesterday. So glad it turned out the way, But it shouldn't have.

I mean, it should file the restraining order. I should probably should have been fired. I mean I broke every role that well, I guess they didn't exist yet. It was the free willing nineties. But but wasn't the US. It wasn't the rules. There were no rules. And so um I somehow became his friend. We became friends, and we really started liking each other and respecting each other. And we had, um we had read the same books,

we found the same um. You know, we were both at the time following the Rwandan genocide and nobody was talking about it except us, so we would talk about it to each other and um, you know, and we had a lot of commonalities even though we grew up very different our parents. He was born in Spain, was born Florida. Well, he was born in Spain and then

lived in Italy until he was seven. His father was in special operations for the military and so, and then they moved to Lebanon, Illinois, and then they he went to high school in Florida. UM, so he moved around quite a bit. And then I was born and raised in the same house my mother was raised in. My grandfather built the house himself. And but the South Jerseys, the South Jersey. I was from the South of Jersey.

It was really fun to read that with the accent and the mayor of East Town and and what what you use some words that the way people like the Philadelphia Eggles you know, you're going the Eggles game and some other things. You know my name, you know, back in high school they would have called me Kelly Rippet, you know the right. Yes, it's like, oh, sound like e used Yeah. Um ours are like yeah, it's like it's like a heart. You do some very funny phonetically.

Phonetically it's almost impossible to understand. Yeah, you said, you say begel, you say right in Like imagine taking a spelling test when you're in third grade. Beans, beans, yeah, they fan. Yeah, you have a Ham fan Like I got a hard time doing it. Now. I love it though, because you're so proud of being from South Jersey. I just love it. But now I'm hearing, you know, people who have read this book. I hear from the North Jersey ors all the time. You know, we're not Fonsy

the way you think we are. And I was like, oh, it sounds like a little self defensive to me. Don't hate our blueberries. After the break, Kelly and I chat about finding our footing in the media boys club. There's so much we could talk about, Kelly. But I do want to ask you, obviously about just because I think we have a lot in common being a woman, uh fulfilling kind of the role of an archetype, being put in a box and and sort of not being able

to expand outside the borders of that box. And but but I want to ask you about your Live experience because it was so sorre to me. Not although not really, but you know, it sounds like the whole thing was fraught.

I would say that that fraught at least the beginning of your career at Live, because you were sort of wide but sort of not, and it wasn't like it was just this bizarre wooing process that wasn't really wooing, but just kind of like, we've got to fill this role and she's there, and it was a very uh it was. It must have been a very strange experience. And I think you captured really well in the book. Yeah,

thank you. Kind of what a mind funck. Excuse me, it was right, Yeah, it was very strange because, um, you know, I did not know. And again, much like writing a book, ignorance sometimes really is bliss. I was sort of baffled. I did not understand that there were these two separate organizations, the network and the local affiliate

station W eight BC. Okay, they were partners in this show, but they were enormously The heads of both organizations were enormously distrustful of one another, less so on the ABC network side and more so on the w a B because the w ABC probably had a bit of an inferiority complex. Well, I think they also felt like, well, we were broadcasting this show locally. Now here they come and they want to make it a national show, and now they're going to try to control us, or who

do they think they are? Or whatever. This is me thinking aloud. You know, I'm not representing this in the book.

I'm just saying I'm thinking aloud as to what the what was the basis of this strange dynamic, strange dynamic that I could not possibly understand because I was living under this assumption that we were all on the same channel, so we were all friends and Synergy and Disney and La La La, and I did not realize that because I was so wanted by the network, that I might not be wanted to buy the W E B W a BC faction right. And I didn't realize that until

much farther along. You know, Lauren R, my producer for the podcast, was saying that, you know, Kathy Lee didn't have that issue because she and Regious started together, but then he was established. He probably felt or maybe that contingent felt they were being bigfooted or forced to do something by the network and not necessarily, Um, we're on board with it, or you know, looking back on it, what do you think you could have done to smooth

things over a little bit? Do you think, because I think it's not that dissimilar from my experience at CBS where Les Moonves, the head of Entertainment wooed me, but I never got the complete buy in by the news division. And I think that if I had politically, and I'm not very political, unfortunately, if I had politically like gone to different people within the news division and really kind of won them over, or at least had the knowledge that they didn't want me there or they didn't want

me there, it would have been maybe slightly different. Do you look think back on I. I mean, it's so you know, it's it's it's so interesting you say that. And that's why I'm very careful to point out that certainly wasn't Regis his fault. You know, I never blame him in this book. I don't blame him at all because he was a signed, a co host, and this is a man that had earned his place in show business and he had, you know, kept that train on

the track. So do you think if you had said, I want to make sure Regis is okay with this, that it might have made the transition easier. I think that I was so unaware that he wasn't that he wasn't. I never occurred to me that he would not have

the stamp of approval. You know what, I mean when even when they said to me, it's not his choice to make, it's our choice, and I was like, but it should be his choice, and they said, well, we're not going to force a host upon any other host, you know, and then you realize, like that's totally untrue, like that's exactly what happened, and and and it makes me feel sad for for him. But I think eventually, eventually we did like have a smooth like we smoothed

it out, like we worked. Because I'm a very honest and earnest person, and like you, I am not political. So it never occurred to me that I had to um, I didn't even understand the dynamics, Like who would I have spoken to? I thought I was speaking to the people I needed to speak to. And I thought that just me being there and being very deferential, and me waiting my turn and taking my place and taking my lums and accepting responsibilities for things that had nothing to

do with me, and playing that game. I thought that I was doing all of that. I thought I was doing all of the right things. You know, this is where I think agents sometimes fall down on the job. You know, they're so concerned with salaries, but they don't actually make sure that the environment that they're putting clients

in is the right one. And I think the best agents would really, you know, even those who call themselves managers, would really take it upon themselves to help guide someone and help smooth other of these rough edges and have the foresight to understand that this dynamic might not be

helpful for their clients. Right. And it seemed to be exactly the previous statement was, it's more about the money and the salary and their coin operators, and it was more about UM not necessarily being concerned with what was best for me or for Regius um, or it was

being concerned with the bottom line and UM not. You know, even even the times I said, you know, this is becoming this seems to be very challenging, and I feel like I'm getting abused in the at least in the tabloid press, I was very abused and uh, and there was sort of this hands up, well, there's nothing we can do about it. What do you want us to

do about it? You know? I know you say that you you smooth things over, but it sounds like like there were issues all along, and that even when we just left the show, there was some kind of tension or resentment, not that I was aware of, no, no, no, it was it was like literally after the fact, and like ten years after the foot but saying, like to

Larry King, misrepresenting kind of you. And you know, it seems like he sort of from my impressions from the book, when when you wanted to have a closer relationship, he was a little talk to the hand ish it. He believed and and because he had done the show for so long that if you are working together, that is where it begins and ends, and then you have your life out. Any company think that was the case with Kathy Lee too. I don't know. I don't know the

nature of their relationship. Again, I think power dynamics are very different, and when you're two equals, that's a very different thing than what I was perceived as coming in as a secondary host. So I can't you know, It's like I can't know that. I don't know what it was like. I just know that these were the rules that were established, like the conversations at had to be saved for the air and only for the air, you know, And was he worried that if you had more of

a social relationship, it might change the dynamic. I mean I remember thinking that with Matt and Brian, I didn't want to hang out with them, not that they wanted to hang out with me. I didn't really want to hang out with them because I thought, what if I get mad, or what if someone says something, or what if somebody gets drunk or It's like, I don't I don't want that to interfere with our professional relationships. Well

that's what I said. I was like, only in this day and age is now like we had a very professional relationship, and now that has looked with like some sense of scorn. And I said, there was a time where that was to be revered professionalism in the workplace. You know. Um, but you know, it's one of those things that I feel like whatever notes we hit, we hit correctly. And those the reason I transcripted those parts of the book is because I wanted it to be accurate.

My opinion or my thought process as to that should not like should not interfere as as to the reality of what was said. It's like, these are the facts. We saw each other. I saw him, he was on our show, But then this interview happened where he said he hadn't and was never invited, never called, and and so I thought, because I'm an idiot, I thought, well, it's also easily irrefuted, irrefutable, and these the press will do its job and say, actually, he was on the

show a few months ago, Actually he's been. And it was like radio silence. That story just spread like wildfire, and I was baffled. I couldn't believe of it, and I went I remember going into work the next day and my producers all looked stricken, you know, kind of they felt bad for me. I think they felt bad for me, like I that it was being so misrepresented. It was being misrepresented. Why do you think, why do

you think we just did that? I don't know. Ye in the book, I don't know, and I still don't know. And you wanted to basically set the record straight. I'm not an abandon er. I don't abandon People's not my thing. And and it's interesting because the reaction, I'm sure, the tabloid reaction to this book, um, which I was sort of warning you of. I think when I came on the show, where things are taken out of context, twisted

or obviously conflicts cells right. But the only reaction to the book was that that my husband made me pass out while we were having sex. I mean that was like that. That was the headline of the book. That's a good story, which you're going to have to get the book. Really is Mark dress Kelly and a really bad outfit when she passed out to the hospital. But that was the that was the big takeaway. And I kept saying, what about the Regis stuff? Has that gotten

some some negative press? No? Just yeah, But that was the only press that it got because I think people read it and understood it and it was and went, oh my gosh, it all makes sense now. Like so you feel like you achieve what you set out to in terms of not not not the whole book. I'm just talking about that sort of misunderstanding and the fact that you wanted to correct the record, which because I think we're entitled to correct the record, especially if it's misrepresented.

So that's why I, like I said, I don't represent my opinion. I represent everything in transcripts because I think it's more to have a transcript on record. And you know, and again this is like one chapter. It's like it's like I like people to focus on the book and its totality, but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about my transition into that show, because it's such

a huge part of my life. Of course, while I'm with your sister, I mean, I feel this the same way about what I wrote about my book and various experiences. It's I feel like not it's not a burn book. I disparage anyone, I leave the reader. And again, people who have read the book have a very different you know.

They It's the reason there were no headlines about that chapter is because it's not headline generating, you know, and people who have read it have this kind of understanding about what it's like to work in a place that it's not like organ an it where it's not two people getting to know each other. It's like fast. It happens fast. Everything happens fast, right, And then to have something misrepresented about you in the press, what do you do? Do you just hope it goes away or do you

set the record straight in real time? That's the whole point of the story, you know, is that? But was it frustrating? Because I do think there were some headlines and I think that's what Kathie Lee was responding to Um that that that did misrepresent what you were saying in the book. Now I know there there really weren't. I mean that the headlines were not disparaging, they were not misrepresentative. That's what I was so surprised by the

headlines generated was that reaction to not headlines. So I was sort of fascinated by, oh my gosh, these are headlines that are now based on a non reader of the book, and before that there were no headlines. And so it really did like, ultimately, I think, you know this, like book sales are. It's really a very word of mouth. And I'm not I'm not somebody that believes it all pr is good press is good press. I don't believe that.

But when it comes to selling a book, it is apparently it is, as you know, as you are now aware. And so it's one of those things where I went, oh my gosh, it's so funny, Like I felt like there there was a moment where I couldn't get my book mentioned in in Vanity Fair in you know, glamour in the New York Times, and then suddenly I can, and it's like that shocking weird I go and here I am again in this conundrum. Do I set the record straight or do I just say thank you? And

I chose to say thank you. One of the things that you know, you write about and is the fact that you didn't have an office, You didn't have a desk, you had no place to put your computer, and um, I didn't have a computer. You didn't have a confiding that one. You know, but it took a while for you to feel like you were part. Yeah, it sounds like sort of a high school click that you couldn't penetrate. And it kind of made me mad at at at

Michael Gellman, you know it did. It made me mad and I was like, Okay, he's the executive producer of the show. He should be he should be supporting Kelly, he should be creating a culture where she's welcomed. And it made me mad. You know, I don't think it's his fault. I really don't. I don't put any responsibility on him. I think it was a way that's not true. No, I I understand, and a lot of people think like they think they put it down to one person, like

well he's the boss. There there are so many people that were over his head and over all of our heads that were worked above us. And you know, I had and still have a great working relationship with him. And he has to walk a very fine line, a tight rope. That's a tight rope walk not showing favorites, not picking favorites, not and like say, and keeping your own job in the process. It's hard. That's hard work.

And anytime something seems easy, it's hard, you know. And so he's been the executive producer of that show for all eight hundred and seventy two seasons or whatever, you know. And it's like, I don't blame him because I think he was doing the best he could in a very in a very delicate situation. It was also a different time, you know. One of the things that people, I think sometimes don't understand. They read things that happened in the

past through a lens of the present exactly. And that was also very profound, that was very You cannot do this to the lens of the pressent. You should do this for a living. You're very good. But no, you're right. But that's why in the book I keep reminding everyone, if like women were created kind of like sex class citizens, and that's the way it was. And I write about it in the context of the time, because it's important for people to gather the context of the time. These

were not unheard of things. This was not an ONI was a very male dominated industry and U you know, and full of big egoes and and so it was complicated. So, um, what are you thinking about your future? Are you loving where you are? Still? You know, as somebody who did a morning show for fifteen years and and really appreciated every day. But it started to feel like groundhog Day at some point, where like how many segments it's about? You know, what are the best genes for your body?

I could I do? I also think about, you know, the young blood fresh people coming in. I think about it all the time. I'm very cognizant of that, you know, and I discussed it a lot, you know, every time we have somebody on the show that's young and funny and effervescent or even you know, by young, I mean just younger than me, you know, um, effervescent, interesting. I always I always turned a gouman and I'll say, you know, you should you should look at her first. You should

look at her for you know, co host. Like when I go on vacation ever sit in a chair with Ryan um and and same with guys. I look at guys and I'm like, you know, you should take a look at this guy. Because I'm very cognizant. I believe that as a franchise show. I don't think I'm the host of the show. I don't think the shows a success because of me. I don't think it's a success

because of any one person. It is a group effort and come on, your important people like continuity, but they also enjoy that shot in the arm of the you know, the breath of fresh air. Remember when you were the breath of fresh air. I remember when I was the breath of fresh air. You know what I mean? I remember that, you know? Uh? And so you don't want to be like the the person you don't want hot breath? Yeah, you know what breath garlet stuff that stayed around too long.

But when you think about it, do you think like five years, two years, or do you think of do you think like that? You know? I mean I think if I thought like that, I would really you know, if I thought like in terms of years, it would be really too terrifying. I still would not have gotten past three years. You know, if they said three years

from now, I'd be like three years. It's more of a I think you know, and you know you know, and and and when they know, they know, you know, and I think it's got to be that group discussion and hopefully you know before they know. Well, I mean, I think I actually think I do know. I'm not willing to actually discuss it if you generate all sorts of panic stricken headlines, but um, you know, I have a very good idea it is. You know, it is definitely like a finite amount of time. I'm not I'm

not you know, working there. You're not going to be walking No, No, I'm not. It's it's not a forever job, and nor should it be. You know, everybody should get to I mean, I wish everybody could experience it and they might have a better uh comprehension of how difficult it can be. Sometimes is um, but it's mostly a high honor to be welcomed into people's homes, you know. Kelly Ripper's book is called Live Wire Long Winded Short Stories,

and it's out now. Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of I Heart Media and Katie Curic Media. The executive producers Army, Katie Curic, and Courtney Litz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Associate producers Derek Clements and Adriana Fasio. The show is edited and mixed by Derrick Clements. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my morning newsletter, Wake Up Paul, go to Katie Currek dot com. You can also find me at Katie

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