Michael Strahan Confirms He And Kelly Ripa No Longer Talk

Back in May of 2016, former Giants star Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa experienced a huge rift in their relationship. At the time, the two were co-hosting together on Live! Ripa and Strahan had hosted the show together for about four years and shared an amicable friendship. However, that was until ABC, the network that both Strahan and Ripa were working for, decided to move Strahan to Good Morning America as a full-timer, making Ripa feel like both her co-host and the network they worked for coordinated a move behind her back.

“At one point I think we were friends,” Strahan said about Ripa, according to People.

“I don’t know what happened at the end. I learned a lot from her, though.”

While Strahan has always had kind things to say about Ripa, he recently reaffirmed this month that since that incident back in 2016, the former friends and co-hosts are still not on speaking terms. The rift that resulted from Strahan’s move to GMA between himself and Ripa meant that Strahan left his position on Live! earlier than planned.

“I learned through all that went down with that, you can’t convince people to like you.” Strahan said, according to Page Six.

When the rift first happened, Ripa was noticeably upset by the workings of both her co-star and her network and felt backstabbed. She took a one-week leave from the show.

TOMORROW: @michaelstrahan and @sarahaines joins the table to talk @StrahanAndSara! pic.twitter.com/0RQoKatgmp

— The View (@TheView) February 17, 2019

“I think that all people are deserving of fair treatment in the workplace. People deserve respect. People should be treated equally and with dignity,” Ripa said at that time, according to Page Six.

Although Ripa and Strahan are no longer on speaking terms, Strahan, over the years, has continued to say kind things about Ripa’s talents on television. Strahan admits he learned much of what he knows today about television from her and has publicly praised her knowledge in the past.

Currently, Strahan co-hosts the third hour of GMA with Sara Haines. In a more recent public interaction of Strahan’s, Strahan responded to a comment from President Trump. When the Clemson University football team made their visit to the White House on January 14, Trump publicly fed them fast food. In response, Strahan said he’d buy the team a lobster dinner. Strahan said he would have loved to have attended the meal at the White House.

“Then I would have walked out of there, like, ‘That was the meal? That wasn’t what I expected.’ If you’re going to go there, go all out,” Strahan said, according to Page Six.