Regis Philbin to have bypass surgery this week

Morning talk host tells viewers ‘Darn it, I don’t want to do it’

Jennifer Graylock / AP file	Regis Philbin says he was hoping to get away with an angioplasty, but he says “there’s some plaque in some arteries and I’ve got to get it cleaned out.”

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updated 10:29 p.m. ET March 14, 2007

NEW YORK - 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.”

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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?”