Handling it like a pro! Morning TV veteran Katie Couric weighed in on the ongoing Kelly Ripa controversy over Michael Strahan’s unexpected Live exit — and said she knows Ripa will be candid with viewers when she returns to the show after her brief absence.
On Tuesday, April 19, Strahan, 44, announced he would be leaving the talk show in September after four years for a full-time gig at Good Morning America. Ripa, 45, was reportedly not informed of the move until moments before the news broke to the public.
“Clearly feelings were hurt and clearly she wasn’t included in the process,” Couric told reporters at the 2016 Matrix Awards in NYC on Monday, April 25, according to The Cut. “Transitions are incredibly tricky and they have to be managed carefully, especially when people have relationships with people on TV, they feel like they’re part of their family, and so it can extremely sensitive.”
“I think that Kelly is obviously the consummate professional,” the Today show alum continued. “If I know her, she’ll be very honest with the audience because it’s kind of like the elephant in the room, in the studio, right? And hopefully they’ll just move forward. She’ll survive, Michael will survive, the show will survive, the show must go on. And it’ll all work out.”
Since Strahan announced his departure, Ripa has been absent from the morning show. She called in sick on Wednesday and then she had scheduled time off to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary with her husband, Mark Consuelos. In the meantime, stars like Erin Andrews and Shay Mitchell have been filling in, but Ripa plans to return to her job on Tuesday, April 26.
Although Strahan said on air that he’s “excited” for Ripa’s return, the two haven’t spoken behind closed doors. “Michael still hasn’t heard a peep from her,” a source told Us Weekly several days after the announcement. “It wasn’t his place to tell Kelly [about GMA] … The head of the network is supposed to tell the staff these things.”
