Despite boundary-breaking titans like Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters smashing through the glass ceiling, it was still a man’s world in early aughts TV. But it wouldn’t be anything without a woman, as Kelly Ripa proved. Still, it was far from smooth sailing, as Ripa’s early days on “Live!” involved a lot of in-your-face sexism. “It was very tough,” Ripa told Variety, claiming she still has “a little PTSD” remaining. “Had I known how difficult it would have been, I don’t know that I would have gone for it. I just think my ignorance in that situation wound up being my blessing and my superpower.”
Ripa said she wasn’t afforded any “paid vacation time or maternity leave or a wardrobe budget.” She said she was forced to use Philbin’s hair and makeup people and had to make do with a janitor’s closet as her office. “It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially because there were empty offices that I could have easily occupied,” Ripa explained.
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Worse, unlike Philbin, who had his own, she had to stand in line to use the audience bathroom. “As a woman, I stood up and did the job I had to do,” Ripa wrote in “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories,” her 2022 book. “Playing a character is what all women do, but playing the role on television is the hardest role I’ve ever had.” Thankfully for Ripa, her hard work eventually paid off.
