Kelly Ripa Returns to 'Live With Kelly and Ryan' After Severe Illness

Kelly Ripa is back to work hosting Live with Kelly and Ryan after seeking medical attention when she became "really sick." The longtime morning talk show host had missed several episodes of the ABC talk show last week after coming down with the illness, marking only a handful of occasions that she has missed a show since she began hosting Live back in 2001.

"I feel a lot better," Ripa told the in-studio audience and co-host Ryan Seacrest during the Monday, Sept. 23 episode of the show, PEOPLE reports, adding that rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated."

"It's great to see you smiling and looking good and back and healthy," Seacrest chimed in. "You kept us from you, you didn't want us to catch anything. You were very considerate…You were missed!"

Ripa went on to detail how the staff reacted when she came to work on the morning of Thursday, thinking that she could make it through taping just fine. As fans know, that didn't happen.

"I was doubled over. [But] in my mind, I was standing upright and I looked great. And I kept thinking, 'Wow, you know what, I'm a trooper. You would never know I'm sick.' And they were like, 'Are you dying?'" she recalled. "You know when you walk into a room and everyone backs out of the room? I was that person."

After leaving the studio, Ripa said that she sought medical attention and found herself relaxing in a private room with a television, where she said she hoped to watch Seacrest hosting solo to see if he could "try to get through host chat without me to talk to." Unfortunately for Ripa, the private room only had a single channel, which was playing British nature documentary series Blue Planet.

"All I'm going to say is, I have now become addicted to this show," Ripa joked. "They tell you all about life in the ocean…I was on an IV and they said, 'We're just going to get your discharge papers, the doctors going to come in and tell you what the protocol is for the next few days, and I said, 'Do you mind if I just finish this episode?'"

"They said, 'So you want to stay here?'" Ripa recalled. "I was like, 'If you don't mind.' I said, 'If you send me back, they're going to ask me for something!'"

Although Ripa was unable to watch the Thursday show, which included guests Taraji P. Henson and Iain Armitage, Seacrest held the reins just fine, though he promised the audience that he would "give you your money back, but you got here for free anyway."

Live with Kelly and Ryan airs daily in syndication.