Philbin Says He'll Have Bypass Surgery

NEW YORK (AP) -- Regis Philbin, co-host of "Live With Regis and Kelly," announced on Monday's show that he will have heart bypass surgery this week.

"Well, listen, I gotta tell you something. ... I had been feeling chest pains, you know, and, uh, shortness of breath and all those little symptoms that you hear about," Philbin, 75, told his TV audience. After a number of tests, doctors recommended bypass surgery.

Philbin said he was hoping to have angioplasty because "you know, you get in -- bang, bang, bang -- they blow it open and you leave the next day." But, he said, "there's some plaque in some arteries and I've got to get it cleaned out."

He's not looking forward to the surgery.

"Darn it, I don't want to do it," Philbin said. "Nobody wants to do it, I guess. And I had a second opinion, I did all those things, and so they're all in agreement that it should be the bypass. And so that's what I'm gonna do."

His co-host, Kelly Ripa, said she planned to give Philbin some special attention.

"My primary job will be, like it or not, get your pills ready -- your sponge-bath nurse," she said.

Philbin quipped: "Why don't you give me a quick dip before I go?"

The Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista Television distributes "Live With Regis and Kelly."

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