Michael Strahan Reflects on Tense Relationship with Kelly Ripa: “I Didn’t Know I Was Supposed To Be A Sidekick”

It’s been almost four years since Michael Strahan‘s surprise exit from Live! With Kelly and Michael, but the TV personality still has more to say about it. In a new profile in The New York Times Magazine, Strahan addressed his “mishandled” departure, his tense relationship with co-anchor Kelly Ripa, and the “selfish” nature of television. While the former NFL star didn’t take a direct shot at Ripa, he suggested that his experience on Live! was intensely stressful. “When it was time to go, it was time to go,” he said. “Certain things that were going on behind the scenes just caught up.”

When asked about his sudden departure from Live! With Kelly and Michael in 2016, Strahan was quick to point out the “selfish” nature of television, as opposed to the team-oriented nature of football. “I’ve done things where I went in with team concepts, and I got there and realized it’s not about team,” he told the Times’ David Marchese. “It’s selfish, and I don’t operate well under that.” The ABC host added that he’s often gone into jobs unprepared to deal with this kind of mentality. “On television, I’ve had jobs where I got there and felt like: Wow, I didn’t know I was supposed to be a sidekick. I thought I was coming here to be a partner,” he said.

Strahan didn’t explicitly say that this statement applied to his four years on Live! (he hosted alongside Ripa from 2012 to 2016), but when Marchese asked as much, he responded in the affirmative. “It was an experience!” he said with a laugh.

“I learned so much from Kelly, so much from [executive producer] Michael Gelman,” he added of his time on the talk show. “When it was time to go, it was time to go. Certain things that were going on behind the scenes just caught up.”

Strahan went on to say that his Live! departure “could have been handled better,” particularly as it came amid rumors of off-air feuding with Ripa. ” I didn’t wake up and say, ‘I want a job at G.M.A.,'” he said. “I was asked to do it by the people who run the network. It was really not a choice. It was a request. But it was treated as if I was the guy who walked in and said, ‘I’m leaving.’ That part was totally misconstrued, mishandled in every way. People who should have handled it better have all apologized, but a lot of the damage had already been done.”

But no matter what went down between Strahan and Ripa, he insists that there’s no bad blood between them. “If people think, Oh, he hates her — I don’t hate her,” he told the Times. “I do respect her for what she can do at her job. I cannot say enough about how good she is at her job.”

Read Michael Strahan’s entire interview with David Marchese in The New York Times Magazine.