If you fell ill (or pretended to) and found yourself channel surfing on the couch midday between the years of 2003 and 2013, then you’re likely familiar with the televised exercise in sartorial shame known as What Not to Wear. For ten seasons, stylists and supposed BFFs, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, deliciously dressed down unsuspecting people—from dowdy middle-America moms to tough girls with their tits out—only to dress them back up again. That was, until, the show was canceled and its stars mysteriously quit talking for ten years. Fear not, though. As of this week, Mom and Dad are back, baby!
On Thursday, London and Kelly publicly reunited for the first time on Today With Hoda & Jenna to discuss their falling out. Now, if you’re like me and can’t recall news of any feud between the two, here’s some context: London and Kelly very abruptly stopped engaging with each other sometime after TLC canceled the show. Then, in 2017, the latter released a memoir in which he was unsparing in his complex feelings toward his co-host.
“For the first five years we worked together, I either adored her or despised her, and never anything in between, probably because we spent nearly sixty hours a week in captivity, rarely more than an arm’s length away from each other,” Kelly recalled. “Trust me when I tell you that is just too much time to spend with any other human being you didn’t choose of your own free will.” Honestly? Fair. London (who has admitted she never actually read the book), however, took the petty road and proceeded to block Kelly on Twitter and offered a “no comment” whenever asked about him. Textbook girl-on-gay violence.
After ten years of silence, however, the pair told Hoda and Jenna they’ve now let bygones be bygones in the name of comradeship...and a cash grab.
“After seeing the same clickbait story over and over and over on Instagram about how much we hated each other, I was like, ‘I can’t take this anymore,’” Kelly told Hoda and Jenna. “Because we don’t really hate each other. We love each other, as a matter of fact.” Per London, they had a good cry as they talked through “all the petty grudges” and “stupid crap” that came between them.
Then, the real announcement arrived: in order to learn the ins and outs of their estrangement, one must attend The Stacy & Clinton Show, a 10-city live tour beginning on October 5.
“We’re going to stand up and we’re going to talk about the behind-the-scenes stories of What Not to Wear,” Kelly explained. “Lots of goss!” London interjected.
“The big feud, we’ll go through that,” Kelly promised. “We’ll do lots of audience participation, like if people want style advice, our updated style advice.”
Great. Now I have to pay $50 to sit in a ballroom at a Hyatt to hear how too much TLC fame and together time probably tore them apart. To Hoda and Jenna, London and Kelly did offer some preview though. In short: being thrust into the spotlight and their individual coping responses.
“It was total diva behavior,” London said of her own. “My anxiety really presented more as diva behavior than anxiety. I was afraid to appear weak, there was a lot of stuff going on for me.” Hmm. Sounds to me like whatever happened was just a common case of co-worker-itis. I mean, come on. Anyone who wears matching Halloween costumes with their colleague is bound to despise them eventually. That doesn’t mean I’m no longer curious though.
Given how shocked everyone—even a former intern on What Not to Wear—was by London and Kelly’s falling out, whatever goss gone unshared until this tour seems worth the price of admission. And hey, even if their feud is boring, at least there’s the promise of audience participation. I’ve missed watching London and Kelly wittily obliterate a woman’s self-esteem only to reestablish it with a wrap dress and Carmindy’s signature smokey eye.