Kathie Lee Gifford Defends Regis Philbin Amid Claims in Kelly Ripa's Memoir, Explains Why She Won't Read the Book

Here’s what Kathie Lee Gifford had to say about Kelly Ripa’s accusations…

While promoting the book, Kelly told People about working with Regis, “There were good and bad days. I don’t want to feel like I’m slamming anyone or that I’m being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk. It took years to earn my place there and earn things that are routinely given to the men I worked with. Including an office and a place to put my computer.”

“The biggest misconception is that it all came easily. People think I just showed up one day and was handed a job and I lived happily ever after and now everything’s perfect. But it never is that way,” she added.

Kathie Lee talked to Good Day New York on Monday (October 10) and talked about Kelly‘s book.

“I’m not gonna read the book. I haven’t read it. I don’t even know if it’s out yet,” she said. “I just know what Regis was to me. He was, for 15 years, the best partner a person could ever, ever have professionally, but he was my friend.”

“We were dear friends and after I left the show, for the next 20 years, we became better friends, dearer friends. I saw him two weeks before he died and the minute I found out he had passed, I got in my car and drove to their house,” she added.

“I was really sorry to see the headlines,” Kathie Lee said about seeing Kelly‘s book being promoted. “I saw that and I went, ‘Oh, I hope this isn’t true.’ I just hope it isn’t, because what’s the point? I don’t get it. In all the years I knew him, I never saw him unkind to anyone. I never did. If he liked you, he teased you.”

Kathie Lee said she prayed, “Lord, protect [his wife Joy Philbin] and the girls from this.”

Did you the surprising admission that Kelly made about her sex life?