Kelly Ripa Gets Candid About Everything — from Marriage and Sex to Botox and Regis

"What I learned from working with Regis Philbin was that my favorite stories were the imperfect ones. I learned by watching him," says Kelly Ripa.

From her first appearance on Live! — when a psychic revealed her third pregnancy before she and husband Mark Consuelos had told their parents or their bosses — to the time she told the world about her daughter Lola walking in on her and Consuelos having sex, the 51-year-old talk show host has shown that no one is better at sharing life's imperfections. But there are some imperfect stories she's never told — including her early struggles on Live! and her complicated, sometimes difficult relationship with Philbin. "The biggest misconception is that it all came easily," says Ripa. "People think I just showed up one day and was handed a job and I lived happily ever after and now everything's perfect. But it never is that way."

Turns out the woman who perfected the art of oversharing had much more to share, as she reveals in her new book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories. Over 22 years at Live!, she has become one of the most relatable and successful women on TV while navigating the ups and downs of her 26-year marriage to actor Consuelos and raising their three kids: Michael, 25, Lola, 21, and Joaquin, 19. Along the way, she writes, she started therapy just before she turned 39 (but asked her mom's permission first) and developed a tendency to forgive but not forget (blame those tough South Jersey roots). She thanks one New York surgeon for "restoration from the neck up," and chats freely about cosmetic injectables. When it comes to sex, well, there's been no midlife slump. "There is no inhibition whatsoever," she declares of her alone time with Consuelos. Her book of personal vignettes, she says, "is meant to be a thrill ride, a little bit of a rollercoaster, a little laughter"—but she also hopes readers will "consider things from a different perspective than what they thought they knew."

Barefoot and relaxed in white jeans and a t-shirt, Ripa says she initially thought writing Live Wire would be a "breezy, funny jog down memory lane." But reliving the memories wasn't always easy, especially when it came to Philbin and their early years together at Live!. "That was the hardest chapter to write," she says. "I don't want to feel like I'm slamming anyone or that I'm being disrespectful. But I also want people to know it was not a cakewalk. It took years to earn my place there and earn the things that are routinely given to the men I worked with. Including an office and a place to put my computer."

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Landing the morning show gig following the departure of Philbin's cohost Kathie Lee Gifford in 2001 was like "getting shot out of a cannon," says Ripa, who was also starring on All My Children at the time. When her agent called with the offer, she was told: "They want you to know who your boss is." No explanation given. "It was very ominous, and it did not feel good," she says. Her agent also said the show didn't want her "bringing an entourage." She brought two people. "I came with hair and makeup," she says. "It was not an unusual thing for people on a television show to show up with."

Moments before she walked on stage, Philbin greeted her and the show's executive producer, Michael Gelman, with: "Uh-oh, Gelman, it's got an entourage." It?! Her heart started racing. "I felt horrible," she recalls. "He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on." The tensions continued. "I understand that probably he didn't want a cohost, but the network wanted me to be the cohost and I didn't think I should pass up that opportunity," Ripa says. "I don't think it was fair to him. But it was also not fair to me."

Still, her sassy spark gave Philbin's curmudgeonly charm a fresh appeal. "There were good and bad days," Ripa says. "I thought I'd grown on him. I think I did." She treasures some memorably joyful moments with him away from the show. "Off camera and outside of that building, it was a different thing," she says. "The handful of times we spent together, I so enjoyed. We went to the same resort once on vacation and he came to a dinner I hosted—one of the favorite nights of my life. I never laughed so hard."

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Philbin retired in 2011, but wounds opened anew when he told Larry King in 2017 that Ripa was "very offended" when he left, that he'd never heard from her again and had never been asked back. "The show had reached out many times," says Ripa, pointing out that he appeared on its 2015 Halloween episode. "It makes me sad but it's not something I will ever understand. I was steadfast in my attempt at communication. You can't make a person befriend you."

Two years after Philbin's death at age 88, Ripa still considers him "the world's best storyteller" and credits him for showing her the way. "If I could become a tenth as good, I'd be happy," she says. "It's taking the audience on a ride with you and remembering that you are always the butt of the joke."

That's a lesson she embraced as she became the show's mainstay and driving force, first with former NFL star Michael Strahan, whose surprise departure in 2016 for Good Morning America left behind more hurt feelings. She doesn't discuss Strahan in her book. "I've always just gone out of my way to be the most welcoming because I know what it feels like to go into a workplace where you may feel like you're not welcome," she says. Now, she hosts alongside the more straight-laced Ryan Seacrest. And, like Philbin, she makes a point to always consider her audience. "I talk about things I'm insecure about briefly and I move on," she says. "It's a one-hour show and they're there to see The Rock."

Not entirely. Ripa's candor about Botox (which started with "pit-tox" to stop excessive underarm sweat) is a fan favorite. "For me, it was just more of my comfort level. If I worked off camera, I would not wash my hair with regularity or wear makeup but when I started to see things that I didn't like, I thought, well, the next turtleneck is going to have two eye holes. I'm not saying you should let people bully you into cosmetic procedures. These are my choices for me."

The same goes for sharing irreverent stories about Consuelos—and how they've kept their spark. She calls their sex life "the one part of our life that has always been very good. Even when we're arguing, it's good."

Looking back, Ripa admits tying the knot with her fellow soap star at 25 was "too young to get married! On paper it should not have worked and when it didn't work, we really worked at it. We fought for our marriage when it would have been easier to quit and throw in the towel. Listen, my parents have been married for 61 years and Mark's parents have been married for 55 years. We didn't know any other way."

Still, there were adjustments when they became empty nesters after Joaquin, now a sophomore at the University of Michigan, moved out last year. (Lola, a singer now studying abroad in London, and Michael, an actor and producer, are living on their own.) "It's scary, thrilling, liberating, shocking... and quiet," she says. "I didn't know how to make dinner proportionally. Now, it's 10 p.m. and we'll eat." She adds, laughing: "There were moments when I was like, 'We're going to be that couple: Our third child goes to college and we get divorced because this is it. But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette. These other parents were running around us with small kids. I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn't run into the water when I wasn't looking. So I think for us, it was 'Oh, this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great.'"

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And so her latest chapter ends on a hopeful note. "I'm confident in certain ways," she says. "Having said that, I never, in this day and age, would start a life in an industry I knew nothing about. I don't have that kind of confidence anymore. I have something different: I have certainty." And yet, "I'll regret all of this," she says with a laugh. "I'm prone to regret and I will regret this entire interview in an hour just so you know." Just another perfectly imperfect story.