Kathie Lee Gifford was one of Regis Philbin's closest friends. The two worked together for 15 years on Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee, and kept a strong friendship after Kathie Lee's career headed in a different direction. After Regis died at the age of 88, she's been a wonderful resource in helping his fans understand his true spirit. Regis was a class act, and Kathie Lee admired that about him.
Although Regis was constantly "on," he was also still a person. The isolation caused this year by the coronavirus got Regis down. It was a side of her friend that Kathie Lee hated to see.
She opened up about Regis' final year on The Talk. As usual, it was painfully obvious that these two had nothing but love and respect for each other.
"He had been depressed in the weeks and months earlier, because of COVID," she said. "Regis couldn't perform anywhere, nobody was out and about, he couldn't be Regis for people, you know. And it broke his heart."
As Kathie Lee told the audience, Regis also had a personal loss due to COVID-19.
"One of his dearest friends had just recently died of COVID, so he was pretty much in a depression I think, his wife said," Kathie Lee continued. "Regis just lived to make people happy. He certainly made me happy for the 35 years that we were great friends." For the first time in a long time, something had threatened Regis' social life.
It's important to remember how many gigs Regis held during his life. It seems as if for years, he was always on television. In many ways, he's a lot like Ryan Seacrest — he also seemed to have multiple projects going on. Live! was where he gained his audience, having started on the show in 1988.
By the time he retired in 2011, the show was officially Live! With Regis and Kelly. Kelly Ripa was Kathie Lee's replacement, and has since used the gig to elevate her career. Before getting started on Live! Regis hosted a lot of local talk shows, like A.M. Los Angeles, and became well known within his community.
But, he was also known in the world of game shows. While people today might remember him as the original host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, he also hosted shows like The Neighbors and Almost Anything Goes back in the '70s. Neither show concept stuck around, but it showed the world that Regis was capable of hosting a variety of different programs.
Regis died from natural causes. While he didn't have the coronavirus at the time of his death, many services this year have been stalled due to the strict protocols regarding coronavirus safety. So, it's a rough year to say goodbye. However, passing at 88, it's fair to say that he had a really rich life.
He left behind his beloved wife, Joy, who's still in contact with Kathie Lee. "Later after he passed, two weeks later, Joy told me that that was the last time she heard him laugh, was when he was at my house," Kathie Lee stated on The Talk. "So, that was a sweet gift from God to me that he blessed that friendship even at the very end. There was nobody like him ever, and there will never be another like him, ever."
Kathie Lee's first tribute to Regis happened on Today, just days after he passed away. "I saw Reeg get out of the car with Joy and I sensed much more fragility since the last time I saw him in January in Los Angeles," she had reported. "We always just picked up right where it picked off. It's been 20 years since I left the show and we've been dear friends in the years since then."
At that moment, she knew that their meetups might soon draw to a close. She's known him for so long, but she could finally tell that he was getting older. "We had the best time and after they left, I thought to myself, 'Lord, is that the last time I'm going to see my friend?' Because he was failing, I could tell," she said.
Even though it was one of the last times, she was still extremely grateful to have the opportunity to see him again. In a way, it seems as if it made it slightly easier to come to grips with his passing. "I'm just so grateful the Lord gave me that final time and it was so precious," she said.
Still, it's upsetting to know that Regis' final year was filled with depression over the situation of the world. It's something that many of us can relate to. It's really hard to properly balance both safety and mental health, especially if you're someone who's high risk.
Regis and Kathie Lee were so close, that people reportedly mistook Regis' wife Joy for his past co-star quite often. "People often called me Kathie Lee because we resemble each other," Joy said, reports USA Today. "People would see him with a redhead and think it was, of course, Kathie Lee."
Still, the two were so close that Joy was never bothered by the mistake. "Women have asked me if I had to deal with any jealousies, because he does spend a lot of time with very beautiful, very smart women," she said. "We have been married so long that those worries have sort of dissipated."
As for Kathie Lee, she's always been proud to share a big television milestone with Regis. She feels as if the two of them laid the groundwork to a new type of entertainment — and, she's not wrong.
"In a weird way, if you hate reality television today, you sort of have to blame [Regis] and myself for that," she said. "We were the first ones that I know of that ever got paid to talk about our lives for a living."
The world will never forget Regis. It's just a shame to know that based on this pandemic, he wasn't fully able to enjoy his final year. At the least, he had to know that he was surrounded by love and admiration from people across the globe. As Kathie Lee said, there'll never be another person like Regis.
