What Clay Aiken thought was an “incredibly innocent” joke with Kelly Ripa spiraled into a “huge blowup” and what he calls one of the worst weeks of his life.
The “American Idol” alum looked back on the viral 2006 moment Wednesday, June 24, during an interview on the Hollywood Raw podcast. The singer was promoting his new single “Rewind,” his first in 18 years.
Aiken was filling in for Regis Philbin on “Live With Regis and Kelly” alongside Ripa when he placed his hand over her mouth while she was interviewing “Dancing With the Stars” winners Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith, joking that he wasn’t getting a chance to speak.
Ripa, appearing uncomfortable with the gesture, replied, “I don’t know where that hand’s been, honey.”
“I wasn’t getting to talk,” Aiken recalled. “They had cue cards with my name on them. 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. I felt bad and I was worried I had upset her.”
At the time, Aiken said he was in talks with the show’s syndication distributor, Buena Vista Television, about hosting his own program.
“I was on the show because I wanted to show them I could handle this myself – that I could host something,” he said.
But the controversy that followed became “probably the most catastrophic week of my life.”
When Philbin returned, Ripa addressed the incident on-air.
“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,” she said.
The exchange became a hot topic after Rosie O’Donnell called the reaction “homophobic” on “The View,” adding, “If that was a straight man… if that was Mario Lopez she would not have said the same thing.”
Ripa later called into the show.
“I have three kids,” she said. “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.”
Aiken, who had not publicly come out at the time, said the controversy was distressing, describing it as “probably the most catastrophic week of my life.”
Aiken eventually leaned into the controversy, poking fun at it alongside Tori Spelling later that week during the American Music Awards, with her humorously placing her hand over his mouth, to “take back ownership of it,” he said. His publicist also circulated clips to media of Ripa covering Philbin’s mouth on previous episodes, which Aiken said that’s when “the tide kind of turned.”
Aiken later sent Ripa flowers, and she followed up with a call.
“She apologized for it becoming blown out of proportion and everything,” he recalled. “She said, ‘I’d love to come back on the show anytime.'”
“I tried to come back on the show, but we were not allowed,” he said. “So I just haven’t tried since. It’s not a big deal.”
The incident ultimately took on a life of its own. “I’d get stopped a lot in the airport to take a picture,” Aiken said. “They’d say, ‘No, no, put your hand over my mouth.'”
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