VIDEO Andy Cohen reveals cancer diagnosis, thanks Kelly Ripa for saving his life
On today’s episode of Live With Kelly, Bravo OG Andy Cohen got in the holiday spirit and revealed that he is thankful for having show host Kelly Ripa as a friend — not just because she is a hoot to be with, but because she may have saved his life!
At the very beginning of the show, Kelly and Andy make their usual enthusiastic entrance, dancing and laughing and promoting Andy’s book. But, Andy changes the tone quickly and gets right to the thankfulness love. “I have to shout you out for something that you don’t know I’m going to shout you out for,” he tells Kelly.
Here’s a slightly edited version of the clip from that point followed by a transcript:
“I had this black dot on my bottom lip…In April,” Andy begins, “and you said, ‘You have a black dot on your lip. I don’t think that’s something good.'”
“I had never seen that on your lip before…and Mark had never seen it,” Kelly pointed out.
Andy continued: “And the two of you were dogmatic that I get it checked out, and I didn’t because I was, like, ‘Oh no, I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s just a black dot.’ And she kept on me and –”
Kelly interupts. “And he would text me and I’d be, like, ‘Did you get your lip checked out yet, Boo?'”
“And finally I did,” Andy confesses, “and it was melanoma. They removed it, and I just want to thank you because you were so dogmatic — no honestly, that’s a good friend, and it really taught me because I love the sun, I really do. But, just be careful! And I, of course, never thought that kind of thing would happen to me, and it will change my relationship to the sun.”
“Yes!” Kelly affirms.
“Thank you for staying on me,” Andy adds.
“Well, I love you,” Kelly gushes, “and you mean a lot to me.” She then adds: I’m glad to see all that money I spend visiting dermatologists was good for something. I essentially, at this point, am a dermatologist. So make sure you guys be careful in the sun out there.”
Here is the full, unedited version in which Andy refers to himself as “tanorexic” and Kelly reveals that he is the third friend she has motivated to get checked out that turned out to have skin cancer:
For those of you curious to see photos of Andy Cohen’s lip before and after he had the skin cancer removed, we’ve put together a couple for you. The photo on the left is from July of last year, and the photo on the right is from an event last month:
The lip does heal well!
What a great story that somehow makes me like Kelly Ripa even more. Plus, when I meet Kelly in person, I’ll now have a great reason to take off my shirt! 😉
