Kelly Ripa on her decision to quit drinking: 'I felt better so I just stopped'

Kelly Ripa is opening up about her decision to quit drinking.

In an interview with People, the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" host, 49, said it all started with a "sober month" with her and her girlfriends about three years ago.

"We all did it together – and I just never went back to it. It wasn’t even really a thought process. It felt great, I felt like I looked great, I felt like I didn’t feel hungover," she explained. "Not that I was a heavy drinker – I wasn’t someone who got drunk – but even like two glasses of wine at a girl’s night out dinner, I would feel it the next morning.”

She continued, “I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it. It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’ ”

She also dispelled the myth that co-host Ryan Seacrest's arrival at the show is what led her to stop.

“Ryan likes to blame himself for me stopping drinking, he’s like, ‘I got here and you stopped drinking.’ It really was not that," she said.

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Ripa also compared the process to her decision to quit smoking about 25 years ago.

"Quitting smoking I really had to think about,” she said. “I was like: ‘Smoking leads to cancer and it will kill you.’ It was a thing I had to tell myself. And I was like, ‘It gives you wrinkles.’ And that was the thing that was really terrifying. But you don’t want to die early, needlessly, over cigarettes... But drinking was very easy I didn’t really think about it at all.”

The only difference? How those around her reacted.

“Nobody ever asked me why. But I quit drinking and everyone’s like, ‘Why did you quit drinking?’ ” she said. “I’m not comparing cigarettes to alcohol, but for me it was just like, I don’t do that anymore. I felt better so I just stopped.”

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kelly Ripa opens up about her decision to quit drinking