Kelly Ripa Reveals the Common Fan Interaction She Doesn’t Like

Kelly Ripa doesn’t need fans commenting on her appearance. The talk show host, 51, sent a message to people who feel the need to weigh in on her hairstyle during Wednesday’s Live With Kelly and Ryan after co-host Ryan Seacrest’s decision to cut his hair shorter after filming an Oscars performance received a sound of disappointment from the live audience.

“We’ll survive, it’ll be fine,” Seacrest, 47, assured fans, as Ripa wondered how frequently people weigh in on his hair. “People weigh in on my hair in a way, it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t ask you,’” she clarified of her question. Seacrest replied, “I thought you meant at the store, like, do people come and weigh in?” to which Ripa answered, “No, people do! They come up in the store and they’re like, ‘I like your hair this length,’ and I’m like, [thumbs-up]. …I’m like, ‘I have no comparison for your hair, but I assume it looks pretty great every day.’”

Producer Michael Gelman then chimed in, revealing how common it was for viewers to write in with their opinions on both Seacrest and Ripa’s hair. “The height of your hair, what your hair looks like, what you should do with your hair – both of you,” Gelman said, joking that fans don’t have “much to talk about” when it comes to his own ‘do.

Ripa’s hair has come up quite a bit on the daytime show, as just last month, Ripa revealed she had battled with her gray hair during the early days of the pandemic, having “embraced” it in private and publicly using brown eyeshadow to paint her roots “some shade that wasn’t Santa Claus white.” She added, “But in real life, I go, ‘Oh, I look great with gray hair, you can barely tell.’”

In the end, Ripa said it was Cher who inspired her to return to coloring her hair more permanently. “Cher was saying that gray hair is not for her. She is not caving in, she doesn’t care about the trend – you know, people are embracing their gray hair all over the place. Everybody’s embracing their gray hair,” Ripa explained, adding that while people should embrace their natural hair if they want, it wasn’t for her. “I think certain people look great with their gray hair,” she continued. “I think it depends on the person. I really do.”