NEED TO KNOW
Robin Roberts proved that she isn’t afraid to go in for a low blow during a playful on-air feud with her Good Morning America co-anchor, Michael Strahan.
During the Wednesday, Aug. 13 episode of the ABC morning show, the 64-year-old longtime news anchor took a dig at the former football star’s gap between his front teeth, reducing her fellow co-anchors to laughter.
After a segment about the viral Labubu dolls, Strahan, 53, reached below the desk as Roberts warned him, “Don’t do it, Michael. Don’t do it.”
He chose not to take her advice and pulled out a stuffed animal that Roberts had with her. It appeared to be a colorful penguin; however, Roberts seemingly thought it was a Labubu.
“We were sitting here, and I saw Robin on her phone, and she was looking this up,” he said, holding up the toy.
She was shocked to learn that the stuffed animal was not a Labubu, with Strahan joking that it wasn’t even a “Lafufu.”
“It’s special to me because Dr. [Tara] Narula’s daughter gave it to me to add to my collection. So how do you feel?” she asked, prompting Strahan to announce that he “felt great.”
Challenging her, he said, “I feel great because I knew it wasn’t a Labubu. I couldn’t help it. It has no teeth. Come on.”
“You’re one to talk about teeth,” Roberts quipped as the rest of the anchors laughed at her surprising diss. “You come at me, I’m coming back at you.”
Roberts and Strahan quickly put their beef aside to move on to the next segment. However, GMA shared a clip of the argument on Instagram, captioning it, “Don’t come for @robinrobertsgma’s stuffed animals 🤣”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Despite their playful argument, the co-anchors have been friends for years. Strahan began working with GMA as a part-time anchor in 2014 while balancing his role on Live! With Kelly and Michael alongside Kelly Ripa.
He joined the GMA staff full-time two years later in 2016. Roberts has been a co-anchor of the show since 2005, meaning that Strahan spent most of his time on the staff with her.
In January 2025, Strahan even revealed a way that Roberts mentored him through a challenging moment — when his daughter Isabella was diagnosed with cancer.
“Robin told me something that really helped,” he told PEOPLE. “She said, ‘You think when you have cancer you’re going to wake up every day and think, Oh, I have cancer.’ But she said, ‘At some point, you wake up and you just live. You don’t even think about it.’ ”
goodmorningamerica/Instagram
He continued, adding, “I can’t wait for Isabella to get back to that point.”
Roberts has had her own health struggles over the years, including a breast cancer diagnosis. She also took a break from GMA to undergo treatment after being diagnosed with MDS, a rare blood and bone marrow disease.
After nearly 175 days away from the morning show, she returned in early 2012.
Strahan has addressed the gap in his teeth over the years, including in 2021 when he pretended to have the gap filled as an April Fool’s Day prank.
“I truly did not think people cared that much about my teeth and I just did it as a little prank, thinking a few of my Instagram followers are gonna go, ‘Oh, he’s [being] crazy’ — they would know it was fake,” he said during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Assuring his fans, he said, “Gap Nation, I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere. April Fool’s.”