Clay Aiken is reflecting on an infamous encounter with Kelly Ripa, and the resulting fallout.
The 47-year-old American Idol alum got candid in a new interview, and reflected on the moment he guest co-hosted alongside the 55-year-old TV star in 2006 on Live With Regis and Kelly.
During the episode, Clay placed his hand over Kelly‘s mouth to keep her from talking after she asked their guests some questions without letting him jump in as well.
“Is that a no-no?” he asked her.
“Oh, that’s a no, no, no. don’t know where that hand’s been, honey,” she responded.
When Regis returned to the show a week later, Kelly called Clay out.
“There was a lack of respect, and when you’re a certain person, you’re in the public eye, you have to be respectful of other people. And I don’t think that he was respectful in any way. If that upsets his fans, I’m sorry to hear that, but you don’t put your hands over somebody’s face and mouth when they’re conducting an interview, even if it’s for a laugh. And that’s all I’m gonna say,” she said at the time, via People.
Rosie O’Donnell would later call the exchange “homophobic” on The View, and Kelly called in to deny and defend herself.
“I have three kids. He’s shaking hands with everybody in the audience. I mean, it’s cold and flu season. That’s what I meant. To imply that it’s anything homophobic is outrageous, Rosie, and you know better. You should be more responsible,” she said at the time.
Clay now calls it “probably the most catastrophic week of my life,” and revealed the guest co-host role came amid discussions of him possibly hosting his own show.
He also said he and Kelly have been in a few places at the same time, but haven’t said anything since.
“Maybe I should feel bad that I have not gone up and said something myself, but she hasn’t either,” he said, noting that he’s “the one with the scars.”
“I’m on the show because I wanted to show them I could handle this myself; I could host something and I wasn’t getting to talk. Like, there were cue cards. They had my name on them. So I tried to be funny, and I did what I did, which was incredibly innocent. And then it got a little cold in the room,” Clay recalled.
“I was worried I’d upset her and I didn’t think much of it until…I tried not to think much of it,” he said.
“I was not out at the time. I was to Rosie … I was out to people who I knew, but I wasn’t publicly out about it. I was not out to my grandparents and the people in my family. And not only does Rosie call it a homophobic remark — which I think she accidentally said, and then she tried to walk it back a little bit — but then Kelly calls in live to The View that day and they get in an argument over it. Not only did she out me, but they had a big argument about whether I was gay and who talked about me being gay.” Watch him reflect on the episode above.
Clay returned to Idol 23 years later this year to perform his new single.
Posted To:Clay Aiken Kelly Ripa
