Andy Cohen just shaded his bestie Kelly Ripa in the most hilarious way. According to the Bravo icon, the Live with Kelly and Mark host has turned to Audra Lindley’s Mrs. Roper from Three’s Company for fashion inspiration.
On this morning’s episode of Cohen’s Sirius XM radio show Andy Cohen Live, he and his co-host John Hill played a game in which they had to guess how old actors were when their shows first premiered.
Cohen specifically chose “celebrities who seemed old at the time but who are really gonna blow us away when we find out how old they really were.”
The Watch What Happens Live host was shocked to hear that Don Knotts was only 55 years old when he originated the role of Mr. Furley in Three’s Company.
“Wow! Younger than I am now. OK,” Cohen said.
Meanwhile, Lindley — who played Mrs. Roper on the ’70s sitcom — was only 46 years old when she started on the show.
Before moving on to the next person, Cohen compared his longtime friend Ripa to the sarcastic, caftan-wearing redhead.
“Kelly Ripa has adopted her style basically,” he joked. “I went over there the other day and I go, ‘Wow, you really look —‘ She goes, ‘Like Mrs. Roper?’ She is the caftan queen.”
The show, which lasted for eight seasons from 1977 to 1984, follows the hijinks of platonic pals Jack Tripper, Janet Wood and Chrissy Snow as they all live in a California apartment complex owned by Stanley and Helen Roper. Lindley ultimately reprised her role as Mrs. Roper in the short-lived spinoff The Ropers.
The iconic Mrs. Roper has since earned her own celebratory event — Mrs. Roper’s Romp, where fans of Three’s Company gather in red, curly wigs and caftans to honor her greatness. Unfortunately, Lindley never got to witness the trend, which started in 2013, as she died in 1997 of complications from leukemia.