Clinton Kelly Opens Up About Life After The Chew: Do the Hosts Still Stay in Touch?

When the final episode of The Chew aired on June 15, the hosts — Bravo's Top Chef alum Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly, and Michael Symon — were so sad, Carla actually likened it to a "living funeral." It would be understandable if Carla, Clinton, and Michael needed a bit of distance from each other (and the allegations of sexual misconduct against former host Mario Batali that ultimately led to the show's demise) after that, but it turns out that the opposite is really true with this crew.

"We text each other all the time," Clinton Kelly shared with Closer. They have a group chat that Clinton said they use "nonstop." They all became fast friends on The Chew, a chemistry that viewers could see on the air.

"When it got down to Michael, Carla, and I there was something about when it was just the three of us," he told Closer. "Almost every day we would crack up laughing, like belly laughter." Clinton shared an example of a blooper he made while doing a segment. "I was [once] talking about like cocktails and we were doing a bar crawl and I think I said something like 'next stop is a gay bar' and I didn't mean to say that. And Michael was like 'did you just say gay bar?' And we were laughing so hard, the three of us, we couldn’t breathe!" 

Fortunately, these three friends share many positive memories to carry on from their work on The Chew. And there are some good ways that fans can stay in touch, too: Michael is concentrating on his Cleveland restaurant Mabel's BBQ, which opened earlier this year, while Carla is currently on a book signing and cooking demo tour to celebrate the upcoming release of her new cookbook Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration.