Kathie Lee Gifford spoke out this week to reveal that her late former cohost Regis Philbin was struggling with the limitations brought on by the coronavirus pandemic in the months before his death.

Philbin passed away back in July of heart disease at the age of 88, and on Friday, Gifford appeared on “The Talk” to discuss his final months. She explained that Philbin was left heartbroken by COVID-19.

“He had been depressed in the weeks and months earlier, because of the COVID,” she said, according to People magazine. “Regis couldn’t perform anywhere, nobody was out and about, he couldn’t be Regis for people, you know.”

Things got even worse for Philbin when a close friend of his died of coronavirus. Gifford, 67, believes that Philbin was suffering from “depression,” adding that the late television personality “lived to make people happy.”

After Philbin’s passing, Gifford took to Instagram to pay tribute to her “precious friend, adding that she  had “no words to fully express” her love for Philbin, and she called his life “legendary.”

“I simply adored him and every day with him was a gift. We spent 15 years together bantering and bickering and laughing ourselves silly — a tradition and a friendship we shared up to this very day. I smile knowing somewhere in Heaven, at this very moment, he’s making someone laugh,” she wrote.

“It brings me great comfort knowing that he had a personal relationship with his Lord that brought him great peace,” Gifford continued. “I send all the love in my heart to Joy, to his children, to the rest of his family and to the innumerable people he touched over his legendary life. There has never been anyone like him. And there never will be.”

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Earlier this week, Gifford reflected on the fifteen years she spent working alongside Philbin on “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee.”

“Every day was fun with Regis. He was bigger than life. No one talks about themselves by their own name,” she said. “He would enter any room—whether it was a huge auditorium or just him and me going to lunch—he would enter going ‘Regis is here!'”

“It was always a party with Reg,” Gifford added. “He lived to make everybody happy. I think that’s why ultimately he was ready to go from his world. He couldn’t go anywhere and be Regis. He couldn’t make people happy anymore.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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