Kelly Ripa says Regis Philbin taught her to "be herself".
The 49-year-old television star co-hosted ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’ with the late host – who passed away last week at the age of 88 – between 2001 and 2011, and has now looked back on the important lessons she learned from the TV legend.
In a preview clip for an upcoming special episode of ’20/20′ titled ‘Regis Philbin: The Morning Maestro’ – which will air on Tuesday (28.07.20) – Kelly says: "What I think my biggest takeaway from the 11 years that I shared with him was that you have to be yourself. You cannot be one person on camera and a different person once the light goes off or the audience is gone, you have to be who you are."
Kelly – who now hosts ‘Live with Kelly and Ryan’ alongside Ryan Seacrest – posted a glowing tribute to Regis following the confirmation of his passing, where she said he had "left the world in a better place".
Sharing a joint statement from herself and Ryan on Instagram, Kelly wrote: "We are beyond saddened to learn about the loss of Regis Philbin. He was the ultimate class act, bringing his laughter and joy into our homes everyday on Live for more than 23 years. We were beyond lucky to have him as a mentor in our careers and aspire everyday to fill his shoes on the show. We send our deepest love and condolences to his family and hope they can find some comfort in knowing he left the world a better place."
And the blonde beauty also dedicated Monday’s (27.07.20) episode of ‘Live!’ to the late star, as she said "they don’t make them like Regis anymore".
She said: "As people get older, you always know that certain things are inevitable, and passing away is one of those things, but Regis is one of the people that we all believed would somehow figure out a way around the inevitable. It was not in the cards, I suppose … They don’t make them like Regis anymore."