Kelly Ripa is one of the queens of daytime TV as co-host of Live with Kelly and Ryan. She’s been a mainstay on the show since 2001 and one of the highest paid daytime talents for her hard work. But when it comes to being at home, she’s more than happy being a “traditional” wife to husband of nearly 25 years, Mark Consuelos. The pair appeared on the Double Date podcast where Riverdale star Mark gushed about Kelly,”She makes the home a home.”
“What’s funny is I think of us as such a progressive as a couple. I always think of us as politically progressive…we’re progressive people,” Kelly, 50 revealed, but then explained, “And yet, when it comes to our own family and our marriage and our roles, I think of us as very traditional and almost old-fashioned in our roles.”
Kelly is thankful that she’s had jobs that have allowed her to stay put in New York City for over two decades, where she was able to be a hands on mom to raising the couple’s three children, Michael, 23, Lola, 19, and Joaquin, 18. Meanwhile, Mark has travelled for his acting career over the years. His current show Riverdale shoots on the other side of the continent from Kelly in Vancouver, BC.
“I’ve been able to raise my kids here in this city, in the nest, and he’s always been willing to travel and go to a set and go off here and sometimes he’s had to go live in another country to work on a set over there,” Kelly shared. “Traveling is hard and being away from home is hard and sometimes he would miss milestones for the kids, and I know that was hard for him.”
Kelly and Mark met and fell in love while working on the soap opera All My Children together in the 90’s. When Kathie Lee Gifford departed Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 2000, it was Mark who encouraged Kelly to pursue the co-hosting gig. She proved to be a huge hit with viewers during her stints as a fill-in host, and was given the coveted co-hosing job in 2001. While the late Regis Philbin retired from the show in 2011, Kelly is still there, having worked with current Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, 49, and now Ryan Seacrest, 46, next to her.
“I wanted to raise my kids. I didn’t want to have them and never get to see them. And the talk show afforded me this opportunity where I would work in the morning, early in the morning, and then I would have the rest of the day to take them to their activities or be there and watch the ballet recital, be there and do all of those things,” Ripa shared about how Live has afforded her a great family lifestyle.
“In that way, we’re very traditional. He made those sacrifices, but I think he wouldn’t know how to find a ballet class. He wouldn’t know how to go about signing the kids up for religion classes,” Kelly joked about her husband. But Mark is proud being the man of the house, saying he’s “a traditional guy. I feel like there are certain roles — it’s hard to explain exactly what those roles are. We had a conversation where I said, ‘Hey listen, there’s really only room for one man in this relationship and it’s going to be me.'” As of May 1, the couple will be celebrating 25 years of wedded bliss, so they definitely figured out what has made their marriage a success.