(Star)
Kelly Ripa is NOT the “Queen of Mean,” despite a cruel tabloid cover story. Gossip Cop can exclusively separate the fact from the fiction.
Ripa is called the “Queen of Mean” on the new cover of Star, which came out on Wednesday. The accompanying story states, “Kelly Ripa has long had a reputation as a controlling, tantrum-throwing diva. That may be why the TV talk show titan can’t find a co-host.” The tabloid alleges that since Michael Strahan shocked her with his departure from “Live With Kelly and Michael,” she’s “become so irascible that it’s not only affecting her ability to find a new co-host but may be taking a toll on her marriage to Mark Consuelos,” too.
“She’s become a real mean queen. ABC hasn’t been able to lock in a permanent co-host yet because no one has the patience or thick enough skin to deal with her,” a so-called “show insider” claims in the magazine. “For years, co-workers have seen Kelly rant and rave and eviscerate staffers she does not deem up to her standards.”
The publication’s specious source goes on, “Despite that, Kelly had a lot of sympathy to bank on after Michael left her in the lurch. People saw her as a victim. But now that Michael’s gone and there’s no more fall guy, her true colors are showing again, and it’s worse than ever. Staffers walk on eggshells waiting for her next explosion. One minute she will be calm and nice, and the next minute she’s screaming about how she can’t keep carrying this show all by herself.”
Star then continues to babble on about supposed problems finding a co-host, and even claims the situation is affecting her home life with Conseulos. But the tabloid has been getting its Ripa stories all wrong for some time now. Back in May, Gossip Cop debunked the magazine’s claim that Ripa was telling her friends to “boycott” Strahan on “GMA.” After that, we corrected the equally untrue allegation that Strahan was writing a tell-all about Ripa.
And now this new report isn’t just mean-spirited and untrue, but it’s also misleading. Ripa and the producers never intended to have a new co-host “locked in” at this point, and planned to use the full summer to thoroughly test out all several potential candidates. It is completely inaccurate to twist the situation into being a reflection of Ripa’s character and work ethic.
Furthermore, Gossip Cop is told that Ripa is actually a welcomed presence behind-the-scenes, which is why so many staffers have stuck with the ABC morning program for so long. In fact, when asked about all these allegations, a rep for the show exclusively tells us, “This piece is ridiculous. End of story.” And a Ripa spokesperson also assures Gossip Cop, “The whole Star story is complete and total bullsh*t, start to finish. They obviously saw how popular she has been and just tried pushing this out.”
