Kelly Ripa Honors Robert Redford on Live After His Passing
On Live with Kelly and Mark, Kelly Ripa pays tribute to screen legend Robert Redford, reflecting on his timeless impact across film and culture.
New York, September 16 EST: When news broke this morning that Robert Redford had died at 89, tributes flooded Hollywood. But one of the most striking came not from a longtime co-star but from morning TV’s reigning queen, Kelly Ripa.
On Live with Kelly and Mark, Ripa opened the show with a mix of awe and grief, calling Redford “truly ageless and forever.” It wasn’t a scripted eulogy so much as a gut reaction, the kind you give when someone’s been in the cultural wallpaper your entire life. “He’s just always been a person in the zeitgeist through all of the generations,” she said, her voice trailing into that “can you believe it?” register Ripa’s fans know so well.
Redford As Conversation Starter
Ripa zeroed in on Indecent Proposal, Redford’s 1993 pot-stirrer about money, marriage, and morality, and the movie that had couples fighting in kitchens for months. “That movie alone sparked a trillion conversations,” she said, and she’s not wrong. Back then, it felt like everybody had an opinion on whether Demi Moore should’ve taken the deal.
What’s striking is how Ripa didn’t dwell on the iconography the blue eyes, the Sundance Kid grin but on Redford’s knack for keeping himself culturally relevant, decade after decade. As she put it, “He’s always been part of the conversation.”
Hollywood In Mourning
Her tribute joined a wave of reactions that prove just how far Redford’s reach went. Jane Fonda, who co-starred with him across five decades, told Entertainment Weekly she “can’t stop crying.” Younger stars like Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Octavia Spencer posted on social media about his generosity and his activism, with many noting that without Redford’s Sundance Institute, indie film as we know it might not exist.
The range of those voices, from Ripa on daytime TV to Fonda in full heartbreak mode, is proof of Redford’s generational spread. He wasn’t just Hollywood royalty; he was a thread running through the way we watch, argue about, and even dream through movies.
A Morning Show Moment That Hit Different
Back on Live, Ripa’s co-host Mark Consuelos chimed in, calling Redford “the definition of timeless.” It was a quick exchange, but it landed. In the middle of a show better known for playful banter and celebrity trivia, the pause for Redford felt weighty, a reminder that the icons who shaped Hollywood are slowly leaving the stage.
And maybe that’s why Ripa’s words resonated. She wasn’t delivering a press-release platitude. She was doing what the rest of us were doing this morning: trying to process the loss of a man who always seemed to be there, whether on screen, behind the camera, or as the guy who single-handedly made the Sundance Film Festival matter.
The Lasting Image
For fans who first saw him in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or The Sting, Redford was the golden boy. For others, he was the Oscar-winning director of Ordinary People. For Ripa and for millions watching daytime TV he was simply the constant: a reminder that movie stars can be both dazzling and deeply human.
Redford’s absence leaves a hole in Hollywood. Ripa’s tribute, brief but heartfelt, nailed why. As she put it: he wasn’t just timeless. He was forever.
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A bi-coastal pop culture critic and former indie screenwriter, Gia covers Hollywood, streaming wars, and subculture shifts with razor wit and Gen Z intuition. If it’s going viral, she already knew about it.
