Kelly Ripa is remembering the late actor, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, during her live show.
On Tuesday, July 22, the morning show host took a special moment on her Live with Kelly and Mark show to pay homage to The Cosby Show star.
The Live with Kelly and Mark host paused the show to pay tribute to Warner, who tragically died at the age of 54 from drowning during a family vacation in Costa Rica on Sunday, July 20.
It is noteworthy that Warner was the first-ever guest on Live! in 1988, which was then hosted by Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford.
“There’s a lot of sad news in the news, so I guess we’ll just get to it and then try to do a hard pivot afterwards,” Ripa said to her husband and cohost Mark Consuelos, via Entertainment Weekly.
“I can’t believe this, because [producer Michael] Gelman was telling me backstage that the very first episode of this show, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a guest on,” she noted before a clip of Warner played, showing the first episode aired on September 5, 1988.
“He shockingly and sadly and devastatingly was caught in this surprise high current in Costa Rica and died as a complication of that. It’s just so sad and crushing, and you don’t realize — I literally, even though I didn’t know him, grew up with this man,” Ripa added.
