Tell Us everything! Michael Strahan attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala in NYC on Monday, May 2, and spoke out about his dramatic exit from Live With Kelly & Michael and the tense situation involving his cohost, Kelly Ripa.
“Every week is great,” Strahan, 44, told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet. “Every day is great for me. I’m on the other side of the dirt.”
The former NFL star, who played for the New York Giants for 15 years, started at Live in 2012 after an exhaustive 10-month search for Regis Philbin‘s replacement. Two years ago, Strahan started appearing on Good Morning America several times a week; he announced last month that he would be starting at the ABC morning program full-time in September.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to [moving to GMA full-time],” Strahan declared to ET. “But I’m still looking forward to going to work for Live … I love being there. I still love it. It’s a great show, great people, and I’m very fortunate to be a part of it.”
Strahan said that he thinks everyone “got the wrong impression” of what went down in that memorable meeting between him, Ripa and ABC executives. As reported, Ripa, 45, felt “blindsided” by Strahan’s departure announcement after he told her an hour before the news was revealed to the public. The following day, the bubbly TV personality took a sick day, and was out until the following Tuesday for her pre-planned 20th anniversary vacation with Mark Consuelos. Upon her return, Ripa addressed the behind-the-scenes drama in her opening monologue.
“What transpired, though, over the course of a few days has been extraordinary in the sense that it started a much greater conversation about communication and consideration and, most importantly, respect in the workplace,” she told the audience. Later that day, Live confirmed to Us Weekly that Strahan was departing the show four months ahead of his originally scheduled September departure.
Despite the contentious situation, both stars have done their best to conduct business as usual. Ripa, though, made headlines last week when she awkwardly brought up contract negotiations on Thursday, and a day later, asked Strahan about his divorces on the show.
Strahan’s final day will be on Friday, May 13, which they discussed on the Tuesday, May 3 episode. “We’ll remember, we’ll reminisce, we’re gonna look back at the fun times we had together,” Ripa said to Strahan. “Wait ’til you see all the stuff that we’ve done. You’re not gonna believe it … So, join us for Michael’s ‘Flashback Friday Farewell’ on Friday the 13th!”
