Howie Mandel has walked back his apology to Kelly Ripa, saying he’s not sure why he even issued it in the first place.
The America’s Got Talent judge, who sparked a viral moment after he bristled at a birthday compliment on Live with Kelly and Mark, says he now regrets posting a video to Instagram in which he apologized to the host.
“I don’t believe in apologizing, but as I said in that post, which I kind of regret making, obviously, I told a joke that didn’t land well,” Mandel told Hot Mics with Billy Bush. “Comedians always say, ‘If you can make one person laugh, you’re doing the job,’ but apparently that’s not enough.”
The original incident unfolded on Monday after co-hosts Ripa and Mark Consuelos congratulated Mandel live on air for his 70th birthday and told him he looked great—a compliment he immediately rejected.
“It’s like saying you’re smart for a stupid person,” he replied on air, before the audience dissolved into uncomfortable laughter. Ripa insisted the pair weren’t saying he looked great “for 70,” just that he looked great, full stop.
Days later, Mandel posted an Instagram video apologizing to Ripa specifically, calling it the first public apology of his 50-year career and conceding, “You’re right, you’re absolutely right.” He ended the video by declaring he looked “fantastic.”
Now, he says he doesn’t know why he bothered.
“I tried to apologize. I agreed with people. I do,” he told Billy Bush, adding that he doesn’t “know what’s going on” or “when this will end.” On a separate podcast, he said he didn’t “know how it was received,” before adding, “it doesn’t matter.”
Live with Kelly and Mark’s executive producer, Michael Gelman, weighed in with a dig of his own, commenting on Mandel’s apology post: “During these divided times, one thing we can all agree upon is that you do look great… for your age.”
