I liked Kelly too when she was on
All My Children. And I do think she changed once she was on with Regis for a while. And I know people here who've seen her in a restaurant and said how horribly she treated the waitstaff.
I was never a big Regis fan, so I wasn't glamoured by him. So I noticed how befuddled and confused he became over the years, especially near his retirement. He became more like the befuddled Grandpa at the Thanksgiving family gathering. Everyone is at the table talking about something. Suddenly Grandpa chimes in with something nonsensical, and suddenly everyone realizes he has no idea what everyone is talking about. People try to explain it to him, but that only confuses him more, to the point that it's best to NOT explain it anymore. Just pat him on the arm and say, "That's okay, Grandpa. It IS very confusing." Then they change the subject.
Kelly covered a LOT for Regis in the final years. She was always on top of every topic, what every guest was up to. When Grandpa Regis would say something befuddled, she JOKE and make it out to be that HE was the one joking, while explaining to him what he was missing or didn't understand. "Oh Regis, you know Daniel Craig is the new James Bond."
To which Regis would say something like, "NEW James Bond?!? What happened to the old James Bond?!? To which Kelly would crack a joke about how things have moved on, and there they are interviewing Daniel Craig, as he is now playing James Bond in the upcoming movie, (insert title.)
Then of course, Regis would joke, like he knew all along. . . except he really didn't.
It was OBVIOUS he didn't do any preparation about any guests or knew what new project they were doing or why they were there, or what was going on. You could still SEE it in his eyes sometimes how befuddled he was. He RELIED on Kelly to cover for him.
Look at this pic from an article in People Magazine. I didn't even have to search for this one. Does he really look like he knows what is going on?
It must have been exhausting for Kelly in those last years. I don't think she ever got the full credit she deserved back then. Everyone wanted to keep the aura of Regis going and her being his sidekick. But, I felt he should have retired about 3 years earlier than he did. So, on the one hand, I can understand why she never wanted to talk to him again, if HE never properly thanked her for what she did. Whether he just never realized he was so bad or it was vanity, I have to wonder.
Back in an interview with
The New York Times published in 2017, Kelly said that, “Regis had a mandate: Absolutely no talking off-camera.”
“He had almost a superstition about it. You save it for the show,” she said about her former
Live with Regis and Kelly host wanting to save the conversation for taping. “I’d be like, ‘Good morning,’ and he’d say, ‘Save it for the air!’ ”
Was it a superstition, or was he just getting befuddled and didn't want her talking to him about stuff he just wouldn't get? And why WOULD she want to talk to him after he left the show, if she couldn't talk to him during their off-time when they were doing the show?
However, that could also be why she changed and gained the ego she did. SHE knew she did a lot to keep the show going and Regis looking good. So, if no one else gave her the credit she deserved, she gave it to herself.
WHY that means she needs to treat others badly, especially those she considers underlings, I don't know.
I think it was very telling that when Michael Strahan left the show to do
Good Morning America, AND host
The $100,000 Pyramid AND do a sports show, NOBODY wanted to tell Kelly. Not Michael, not any exec at ABC.
And they left the timing of his announcement until just before she was set to take her spring vacation - or so they said, when she wouldn't come back to the show for a few weeks, she was supposedly so upset.
I don't watch the show a lot, only when I happen to be at home at that time. (I don't care for what's on the other networks at that time, so it's on by default.) Yet, I noticed that when rumors came out that Ryan Seacrest was possibly tapped to host the afternoon GMA3 show after ABC fired the two co-hosts for having an affair, Kelly became openly passive-aggressively mean and snarky to Ryan. She made it out to be such a joke to be so mean to him.
I don't think Ryan wants to do another 5 day a week show, especially as it's based in NYC. His home is in L.A. and now Italy. But, after the Strahan fiasco, she probably doesn't trust Ryan leaving and not for another ABC show.
I just think he must have been so happy to leave at the end. He's supposed to come back and guest host when Kelly & Mark are on vacation. I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan just happens to be too busy to do it.
OR he demands mega-bucks to do it.
TMZ has mentioned that Ryan now spends a lot of time in Italy. He makes his own artisan olive oil there and has started entering it into competitions around the world.
When Ryan made his announcement that he was leaving the show, he had mentioned that he was only supposed to stay for 3 years. (So, his contract had an end date. He ended up staying for 6. Much of that was through Covid and how topsy-turvy that all was, Zooming the show from each of their homes. (He was probably able to negotiate quite a salary bump to stay the extra 3 years.)
So with all that money, allowing him to go back & forth to Italy, do AI, plus his own daily podcast and radio show, and doing the ball drop on New Year's Eve, he no longer needs to do
Live. Kelly may need him more than he needs her, as she does need a temporary host while her and Mark are on vacation.
IDK, I never personally interacted with either of them, but even if you take the Regis part out after the show became Live with Kelly, her demeanor switched, imho. Felt uppity, I am better than you. That is just my opinion and I know it means squat.
