The curse of Michael Strahan continues to haunt Kelly Ripa.
Multiple sources revealed on “Page Six TV” Wednesday that Ripa, 47, demanded her “Live!” co-host Ryan Seacrest cancel an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” at the very last minute.
“Ryan was scheduled to be on Wednesday’s show well in advance. He’s been on the show rundown for a week. Then yesterday, or maybe even as late as last night, Kelly threw a s–t fit and told him he couldn’t do ‘GMA,’ so he pulled his appearance,” a source told us.
Seacrest, 42, was supposed to appear on the show to promote ABC’s new “American Idol” season with judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.
Seacrest immediately pulled the plug in order to not upset Ripa — who famously had a meltdown, stormed off and took a week off when Strahan, 45, quit her show without giving her advance warning in 2016 — another source added.
“It’s very clear that Ryan wants to stay on her good side. She’s an executive producer on the show, so she has a lot of pull. It’s fair to say she has a lot of influence over him. He joined her show. It sounds like she still feels threatened,” the source said.
“There’s still bad blood with Kelly and Strahan, and she doesn’t want history to repeat itself and Ryan to be lured to ‘GMA’ too,” the first source said.
But ABC brass didn’t bat an eye over Ripa’s tantrum given that they’re indebted to her after the way they handled the Strahan situation when he fled to “GMA.”
“Kelly isn’t going to be reprimanded for this, as diva-like as it is, because it’s not worth upsetting her for a three-minute hit with Ryan on ‘GMA.’ They had the three judges, and the big star Katy Perry, anyway,” the source said.
Seacrest’s rep claimed the abrupt cancellation was due to his schedule on “Live!”
“Ryan had wanted to appear on ‘GMA’ with the new ‘Idol’ judges … but with the constant shifting of various schedules, we determined yesterday, along with ‘GMA,’ as well as ABC/Freemantle producers and publicity teams, that his schedule was too tight given his morning commitments with ’Live’ and his radio show, along with ‘Idol’ production commitments … To suggest any other reason for him not participating is completely false or a misunderstanding of the facts,” his spokesperson said.
Another insider added, “How much prep does he really need for ‘Live!’? It was really odd and confusing. It’s pretty obvious that she’s difficult to work with.”
A rep for Ripa insisted, “This story is absolutely not true,” but declined to comment further.