Three years after Michael Strahan left Kelly Ripa behind to join Good Morning America full time, their relationship still has not healed.
During an interview with TIME Magazine this week, the Pro Football Hall of Famer said he is no longer in touch with his former Live With Kelly and Michael co-host.
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“I learned through all that went down with that, you can’t convince people to like you,” Strahan said, adding, “I haven’t spoken to her in a long time.”
Strahan said Ripa was helpful when it came to learning how to reach a new television audience, and put him on the road to success at GMA. He now hosts GMA‘s third hour, GMA Day, with Sarah Haines.
Strahan left Live in April 2016, and Ripa felt blindsided by the decision. Ripa missed several episodes after the announcement and criticized the network when she returned.
“I really needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts. After 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” she told the audience. “It started a much greater conversation about communication and consideration and, most importantly, respect in the workplace.”
After several awkward episodes with the two, Strahan’s departure from the show was moved up to May 2016, months earlier than originally planned. Ben Sherwood, who was Disney/ABC Television Group President at the time, told The Hollywood Reporter there were “mistakes” made during the controversy.
“We made some mistakes, we fixed them quickly and we moved on,” Sherwood said at the time.
While Strahan and Ripa are still employed by the same company, Strahan has said several times they are no longer friends.
“Toward the end of it all, we didn’t really communicate that much,” Strahan told PEOPLE in October 2016. “I kinda looked at it like, ‘It was what it was.’ I come from a business where you have to collaborate. The show was going well? We’re all winning. That’s all that matters to me.”
Strahan added, “The most disappointing thing to me was that I was painted as the bad guy, because I value the way I carry myself… I don’t want people to see me as ‘Oh, he just ran out, just left them there.’ That’s just not true.”
The Super Bowl winner said he was not surprised by Ripa’s response, adding, “I can’t control somebody else’s actions. I was there four years, and it’s about more than just being in front of the camera.”
After Strahan left, Ripa was paired with several guest hosts, until Ryan Seacrest was hired as the permanent Live co-host in 2017.
Photo credit: Mark Davis/Getty Images
