Six years have passed since Michael Strahan left the program “Live With Kelly and Michael” to join the staff of “Good Morning America.” Co-host Kelly Ripa was so shocked by Strahan’s decision to depart that she took a week off from the show when it happened. Strahan actually left three months sooner than originally scheduled. It was a bit of a mess leaving.
She acknowledged leaving when she got back, but she didn’t give a detailed explanation. When Ripa returned to the show, she told her audience, “I needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts; after 26 years with this company, I earned the right.” “I deserved the privilege.” This led to the start of a far more thorough conversation on respect, communication, and thoughtfulness in the workplace. There have been heartfelt apologies.
Strahan may have apologized for leaving, but there is no denying that his relationship with Ripa is different now than it was when they were presenting the show.
Only recently has Strahan revealed a lot about how the show ended many years ago and his connection with Ripa—or perhaps we should say that he is not in a relationship with her.
According to an interview Strahan provided to Time, the bond between Strahan and Ripa never really recovered after he departed. Actually, there isn’t much communication between the two nowadays.
During his interview, he said, “I discovered that you can’t make people like you because of everything that happened with that.” It has been a long time since I spoke with her.
Strahan is currently working on Good Morning America, and Ripa is currently working on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (due to Ryan Seacrest’s choice to co-host the show in 2017). These two famous people are still hosting their own morning shows. He and Sara Haines host the third hour of the morning show, which airs in the morning, in the early afternoon.
During the time they were still hosting, Strahan hinted that Ripa had some issues, but that these issues were out of his control in a previous interview with Deadline.
I was the same person I had been from the first day. Changing my mindset for someone else’s is something I will never do. Kelly and Michael Gelman, the executive producer, taught me a lot. It was finally time to depart when the time came. Some of the behind-the-scenes activities simply came to light.
Which program do you like better, Good Morning America or Live with Kelly and Ryan?