Kelly Ripa speaks about her experiences with sexism on the set of her daytime talk show Live!, which she has co-hosted since 2001. In a new cover story for Variety, the television personality claims ABC refused to give her a permanent office while she hosted the show with Regis Philbin, eventually putting her in a janitor’s closet.
“It was the strangest experience I’ve ever had in my life,” Ripa told the magazine. “I was told I couldn’t have an office. It didn’t make much sense, especially since there were empty offices that I could easily have filled.”
The network told Ripa that the empty offices are reserved for executives visiting from the West Coast, according to the former All My Children star. After three seasons of Live! Eventually, Ripa negotiated her own space with Regis and Kelly. But the network offered her something that wasn’t ideal for a network talk show host.
“After my fourth year, they finally cleared out the closet and put a desk in for me,” she said. “And so I worked in the janitor’s closet with a desk so I had a place to put things.”
Philbin, who passed away in 2020, retired from the syndicated morning show in 2011. Ripa said she plans to move into his former office once he leaves as she has been appointed the main presenter. However, Ripa was told that they would reserve his spot for “when the new guy comes along”. (Michael Strahan would join the show in 2012.)
“I looked at her and said, ‘I’m the new guy,'” Ripa recalls. “I just moved my things. I invaded the office because I couldn’t understand how I could still be in the caretaker’s chamber and someone new come in and take over the office.
She continued: “Initially I thought this just happens and they don’t have to let me know because I’ve only been here 10 years. I’m still the new girl. But then, when I was the senior on-air staffer, it was like watching the same movie all over again: all the offices that weren’t available to me suddenly became available, and the walls were knocked down to make them doubly so to make big . It was fascinating for me to watch – the need to bring comfort and respect to the new man, but I couldn’t use these offices. I had to use the broom closet.”
What’s more, the former All My Children star revealed that she didn’t have her own bathroom in the show’s early seasons and had to wait in line for viewers to access the open bathroom – even when she was pregnant.
“Imagine that,” Ripa said. “We have a studio audience – about 250 people! – and I have to queue. Especially when I was pregnant, it was extremely tiring to have to stand in line. I have to host the show and am still waiting in line to go to the bathroom. It just seemed like a very unnecessarily difficult situation.”
Ripa also spoke about the network’s reluctance to offer her fair pay. She told Variety that it wasn’t until her contract ended that the network felt the pressure to pay her what she earned and she had the option to leave.
“I don’t think they wanted to pay me,” she said. “I think they had to pay me. I tried to walk out the door and shut it behind me. And I think they figured out really quickly that they made a big mistake and it didn’t look good. I think that was really the impetus to pay me fairly. You had no choice.”
Though her working conditions were conspicuous at the time, Ripa said she doesn’t blame her male co-hosts, saying it was “the collective fault of many.” Still, she said she’s the kind of person who “would go out [her] way to protect people.”
“The network had a duty and obligation to keep all things equal,” the daily presenter said. “I don’t blame the guys. They only did what they were told or instructed to do or what they felt they deserved.”
Previously, Ripa opened up about some of the difficulties she faced working with Philbin for a decade during the promotional tour for her latest book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories.
In a People cover story last year, she said that it “took me years to earn my place there and to earn things that are routinely given to the men I’ve worked with, including an office and a place to where I can put my computer”. When asked specifically about Philbin, she said: “I don’t want to feel like I’m smacking anyone or being disrespected. But I also want people to know that it wasn’t a cakewalk.”