Kelly Ripa admits to using injectables and thanks plastic surgeon for ‘restoration from the neck up’

Six-time Daytime Emmy winner Kelly Ripa admitted to using cosmetic injectables and thanked a New York plastic surgeon for ‘restoration from the neck up’ in her new book, Live Wire.

The LIVE with Kelly and Ryan producer-host – who turns 52 this Sunday – initially started using Botox in her armpits for excessive sweating, which she dubbed ‘pit-tox.’

‘For me, it was just more of my comfort level,’ Kelly said in her People cover story, which hits newsstands Friday.

‘If I worked off camera, I would not wash my hair with regularity or wear makeup but when I started to see things that I didn’t like, I thought, well, the next turtleneck is going to have two eye holes. I’m not saying you should let people bully you into cosmetic procedures. These are my choices for me.’

Ripa revealed that ‘the hardest chapter to write’ was the one about replacing Kathie Lee Gifford as co-host of LIVE with Regis Philbin, who called her ‘it’ and did not want another co-host.

‘”Uh-oh, [executive producer Michael] Gelman, it’s got an entourage,”‘ the petite perky presenter recalled Regis greeting her when she brought a hair and make-up artist.

‘I felt horrible. He was probably trying to be funny, but at the same time it felt like a pile-on…I understand that probably he didn’t want a co-host, but the network wanted me to be the cohost and I didn’t think I should pass up that opportunity. I don’t think it was fair to him. But it was also not fair to me.’

Kelly did not include any stories about Michael Strahan, who famously ‘blindsided’ her by quitting LIVE in 2016 for Good Morning America two years after vowing it was his ‘top priority.’

‘I’ve always just gone out of my way to be the most welcoming because I know what it feels like to go into a workplace where you may feel like you’re not welcome,’ Ripa said of the scandal.

As for the New Jersey native’s 26-year marriage to Riverdale star Mark Consuelos, she said there’s ‘no inhibition whatsoever’ and their sex life is ‘the one part of our life that has always been very good. Even when we’re arguing, it’s good.’

Kelly admitted she and the Spanish 51-year-old were ‘too young to get married’ when they eloped at the Chapel of the Bells in Las Vegas after only a year of dating.

‘On paper it should not have worked and when it didn’t work, we really worked at it,’ Ripa said.

‘We fought for our marriage when it would have been easier to quit and throw in the towel. Listen, my parents have been married for 61 years and Mark’s parents have been married for 55 years. We didn’t know any other way.’

The Let’s Get Physical executive producers originally met while playing onscreen lovers Hayley and Mateo on the ABC soap opera All My Children.

Kelly thought she and Consuelos would be one of those couples who got divorced after their three children – son Michael, 25; daughter Lola, 21; and son Joaquin, 19 – moved out of their $27M Upper East Side townhouse.

‘But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette,’ Ripa recalled.

‘These other parents were running around us with small kids. I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn’t run into the water when I wasn’t looking. So I think for us, it was “Oh, this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great.”‘

The Camden County College drop-out will kick off her six-date Live Wire book tour on Wednesday at Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, NJ.

Kelly and co-host Ryan Seacrest interview talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban on Wednesday morning’s episode of LIVE with Kelly and Ryan.