PHOTOS‘Ultimate Betrayal!’ 5 Updates On Kelly Ripa & Michael Strahan’s Feud Over ‘GMA’ Gig
Apr. 21 2016, Updated 1:34 p.m. ET
The drama is live on ABC! After Michael Strahan suddenly left LIVE! with Kelly & Michael for a new hosting gig on Good Morning America, all hell has broken loose after Kelly Ripa walked out on the show.
After Strahan, 44, announced he was leaving to join GMA, the 45-year-old did not show up for the Wednesday show in the wake of his sudden departure. However, a rep for LIVE! said Kelly was out “for a previously-scheduled vacation.”
“Kelly sees this as the ultimate betrayal,” an insider told Page Six. “There’s been a total Ripa meltdown.” She was photographed leaving her apartment in New York City on April 21 with a book in hand, but is reportedly taking a trip with her family to Turks & Caicos later in the day.
According to reports, Ripa will return to LIVE! on Tuesday while Erin Andrews and Shay Mitchell will fill in for her while she’s gone.
Peter Krause at the
Despite the hurt feelings, Michael thanked Kelly on April 21 while on Good Morning America. “I’m going to miss everybody at LIVE!," he said. "I've been sitting next to Kelly every day and having a lot of fun on that show for the last four years. I'm very thankful for her—to her—because I learned so much from her. I was so new to all of this. If it weren't for her, if it weren't for executive producer Michael Gelman and the staff there that really boosted me up and made me look a lot better than I really am, I never would have had a chance to be here. But I'm grateful that I'm here. And we're on the same network. I'm just right over here a little bit earlier now, but we're the same team, same family, same network."
Strahan does not start his new post at GMA until September but sources said the network is already on the hunt for a replacement, eyeing up Ripa’s BFF Anderson Cooper for the job.
