LIVE with Kelly and Mark host Kelly Ripa revealed a huge secret on the show: Along with her husband, Mark Consuelos, the couple has a pet project in NYC quietly renovating an unexpected area of the city. Keep reading for all the details on the surprising hobby.
Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos Live In $27 Million Townhouse
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary in May. The couple famously met on the set of All My Children and eloped to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1996. They share three children but didn’t find their “forever” home until 2013.
The talk show hosts purchased a five-story townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $27 million that year. They renovated it in their own Art Deco style and plan to live there for the rest of their lives. The longtime couple are empty-nesters now that their youngest son graduated from college earlier this year.
With their kids starting their own lives, the couple scaled back their holiday celebration. They visited their daughter, Lola, for Thanksgiving. The LIVE hosts spilled their Christmas plans with PEOPLE magazine. They told the outlet that they had low-key festivities planned again.
“My goal is to cater as much as possible. My new outlook on life is to do the least amount of work possible when I’m not working,” Kelly Ripa shared. “We’ll be cooking and hosting, but not too much,” she added.
LIVE Host Reveals Secret NYC Renovation Project
Catering at Christmas may seem a little “bah humbug,” but Kelly Ripa and her husband do enjoy the holidays. The couple has been secretly adding holiday cheer to NYC for years without anyone knowing.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos spilled their little secret to Entertainment Weekly. The couple admitted to secretly decorating a construction site near their home. “We sort of decorate the front of our house. Next door is a construction site, and they’ve let me decorate the construction site,” she said.
The talk show hosts asked permission first. Mark Consuelos described the site as “a green-paneled wall, like a Tiffany box.” Kelly Ripa said she puts up a “big red ribbon” to make it more festive. She said that it’s a popular spot for photos. Sometimes she even gets Christmas cards from friends with the festive site in the background of Christmas photos.
“This has been a seven-year construction project. The past few years, they don’t know it’s us! But, they’ll send a Christmas card of their kids in front of our house, to us, and I love that,” she said. The couple has kept the secret for seven years, but now everyone will know it was them.
Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa make LIVE a delight for viewers around the holidays, too. They host a special episode each year where the audience dresses in homemade Christmas sweaters. Mark Consuelos said it was his favorite episode to do. Tell us in the comments what you think think about them secretly bringing holiday cheer to NYC.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
