Kelly Ripa is one of television’s longest-standing daytime hosts and producers. Ripa has been the co-host of the syndicated talk show, Live with Kelly and Ryan, which has aired in various formats with the host since 2001. She’s also lent her talents to producing, which was what led her to meet her husband, actor Mark Consuelos. The couple have been married for 24 years and are also the co-owners of their own production company.
Milojo, which is named after their children, produced the films The Streak and Off the Rez, as well as the non-scripted series Homemade Millionaire. The couple recently celebrated the anniversary of the day they first met and began their journey together.
When Kelly Ripa met Mark Consuelos
The television host recalled in 2018 meeting Consuelos while she was acting on the soap opera All My Children. Ripa stated that the show was looking for a love interest for her character and when she saw the picture of Consuelos, who was auditioning for the role, she immediately knew he was the one.
“They had been looking for this character for some time. They were looking really for a Latino actor … and so I had auditioned every Latino actor in the city and around the city and then California,” the actress shared with Bruce Bozzi on the radio show “Lunch with Bruce.”
Ripa continued that when the casting director showed her Consuelos’ picture it was “love at first sight” even though she didn’t consider herself to be a “hopeless romantic”.
“I had no responsibilities and I was earning a good living on this soap opera … [But] when I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before [my eyes], like I saw it,” Ripa explained.
Consuelos is now quite the romantic
Consuelos shared similar sentiments when he reflected on meeting his wife during an interview with HuffPost Live in 2014. “I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff, but I was very focused. I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t really focused on that,” Consuelos shared. The couple eloped in May 1996, a year after they met. They are the parents of three children: Michael, Lola, and Joaquin.
In celebration for the anniversary of the day they met, Consuelos surprised his wife with a bouquet of flowers. The actor, who currently stars on Riverdale, surprised Ripa by showing up unexpectedly at the gym where the host was working out and waiting for her to come out. “He had flowers for me, and he said, ‘I have to tell you something. It dawned on me as I was flying home, that today is 26 years to the day since we met. Isn’t that crazy?'” the host shared. “I said, ‘You are kidding me, how did you know that?’ He goes, ‘I worked it out in my head.”