Who knew that a 1995 screen test for All My Children would result in one of Hollywood’s most successful love stories? More than two decades into their marriage, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos continue to make Us swoon with their passion and adoration for each other.
The Live With Kelly and Ryan host and the Riverdale actor’s relationship hasn’t altered since they first locked eyes as Consuelos read for the part of Mateo Santos, who would eventually become Ripa’s character Hayley Vaughan’s onscreen love.
Shortly after meeting on the set of the soap opera, Consuelos and Ripa quietly began dating. “I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff,” Consuelos recalled during a 2014 interview with HuffPo Live.”But I was very focused — I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t really focused on that.”
After getting to know each other, it didn’t take long for the duo to realize they were soulmates. During a date night in 1996 — which consisted of pizza and wine — Consuelos proposed marriage to his love, and the two quickly jetted off to Las Vegas where they eloped.
Luckily, Ripa snagged a $199 dress weeks prior that was just hanging in her closet waiting for the perfect occasion. “I didn’t buy it as a wedding dress. I just bought it because it was really pretty, and I wanted to buy something from the Barneys Warehouse sale,” she told the audience during a 2016 episode of her morning talk show.
One year after tying the knot, Ripa and Consuelos welcomed their first child, Michael, and went on to add two more children — daughter Lola and son Joaquin — to their family in 2001 and 2003, respectively. When their kids eventually went off to college, the duo reflected on the pros and cons of being empty nesters.
“I will say the best part is there’s no laundry in our house,” the talk show host teased during a September 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, admitting it was “brutally painful” to drop her youngest son off at school. “There’s no dishes. There’s, like, nothing! Nothing! There’s nothing.”
On the other hand, “the worst part” was not realizing how quickly time would fly. “People would say to us, ‘Oh, don’t blink because they grow up before you know it, and they’ll be out of the house.’ And when you’re in it, you’re so tired, you’re so like, bone-tired in your bones that you can’t believe that’s true,” she explained. “But we did. We blinked, unfortunately, and now they are grown adults. … We didn’t slow down in real time to appreciate that aspect of them when they were small.”
Scroll down to take a look back at Consuelos and Ripa’s relationship timeline:
Jessica Vacco-Bolanos
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