Michael Strahan reveals he felt like a sidekick not a partner on 'Live'

It sounds like the kind of storyline that’s more appropriate for a fictional TV series like The Morning Show, yet what went down between Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa when the former NFL star abruptly left Live With Kelly and Michael in 2016 was real-life drama at its best. And now Strahan is talking about the feelings that lead him to walk away.“In sports, you can put as many great players as you want on a team, but if one guy out there is worried about himself, it will not work,” he said in an interview with the New York Times. “Then 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.”The $100,000 Pyramid host was of course referring to his four-year stint alongside Kelly Ripa on the daytime talk show Live. That run ended with a very public and messy breakup three years ago when Strahan left for a permanent gig on Good Morning America. At the time it was considered one of the biggest scandals in daytime talk show history, with rumours swirling about behind-the-scenes tension. It got to the point where the hosts supposedly only spoke to each other through reps—Ripa was reportedly jealous of Strahan’s newfound fame—and unnamed sources revealed Strahan made things uncomfortable for everyone on set.[video_embed id='1605090']Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos turned up the heat in their matching swimsuits[/video_embed]Then, when ABC did announce Strahan was leaving the show, Ripa felt blindsided and took several days off work. When she did return she told viewers that she, “needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts [on the situation]. After 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” she said at the time. “What transpired over the course of a few days has been extraordinary, in the sense that it started a much greater conversation about communication, and consideration, and most importantly, respect in the workplace.”Strahan previously spoke about his departure last year in an interview with TIME where he noted he hadn't spoken to Ripa "in a long time" and had learned that you can’t "convince people to like you." He revealed in the NYT interview that he had no hard feelings towards his former co-host, who'sbeen  paired with Ryan Seacrest since 2017, and wanted to clear the air about perceived animosity."If people think, 'Oh, he hates her'—I don’t hate her. I do respect her for what she can do at her job. I cannot say enough about how good she is at her job," he said.The 48-year-old also admitted his exit from the show could have been handled better, but he was also at the mercy of his bosses.“I didn’t wake up and say, ‘I want a job at GMA,’ I was asked to do it by the people who run the network. It was really not a choice. It was a request,” he said. “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. For me, it was like: Move on. Success is the best thing. Just keep on moving.”Live With Kelly and Ryan airs weekdays at 9amET on CTV.[video_embed id='1885613']Miranda Lambert opened up onstage about her rough split[/video_embed]