LIVE With Kelly & Mark hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have been married for nearly thirty years. They tied the knot in 1996, one year after meeting on the set of the ABC soap All My Children.
Ahead of their milestone anniversary, Mark Consuelos opened up about the struggles early in their relationship. He revealed that they once broke up and shared how LIVE saved their marriage.
Mark Consuelos Opens Up About Early Breakup With Kelly Ripa
Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa are couple goals. They’re still in love after almost three decades together. They also work together on the daytime talk show. He joined as co-host in 2023 after Ryan Seacrest left. The couple often discusses their real-life relationship during the show’s opening dialogue.
Singer and actress Selena Gomez was a recent guest. When asking about her engagement to Benny Blanco, Kelly asked who said “I love you” first. The host added that Mark Consuelos accidentally said it first in their relationship.
“It fell out of his mouth accidentally,” Kelly said. Selena Gomez proudly shared that she said the three words first.
Mark Consuelos was a guest on the Skinny Confidential podcast and spilled something shocking about his early relationship with Kelly Ripa. He said that they once broke up… the day before they eloped to Las Vegas.
He said that he broke up with his future wife because she wasn’t answering his calls. “I broke up with her, because I was dumb, and it was the most agonizing week of my life, and I just knew that I never wanted to feel like that,” Mark Consuelos said.
He quickly realized his mistake, thanks to LIVE.
He Reveals How LIVE Saved His Marriage
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos were both starring on All My Children at the time. They played love interests on the show, but also fell in love in real life.
After breaking up with Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos found them both on the set of LIVE. Back then it was hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin. He said on the podcast that they were there to do PR for the soap opera. They tried to avoid each other but he was struck by how beautiful she looked.
“She looked amazing. I can still see this little Chanel, beautiful jacket with a kerchief, like she’s French all of a sudden,” he said about her appearance that day.
Mark Consuelos said that they were both smokers back then so he went out with her when she had a smoke break. After begging her to walk to Central Park with him, they ended up at his apartment, where he proposed.
She initially turned down the proposal, telling him to ask again when he was serious. He said he was serious and then went to Vegas to elope the next day.
The couple came full circle when he joined the show that saved their relationship.
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
