A perfect match on screen — and off! Kelly Ripa couldn’t be more proud of husband Mark Consuelos for nailing their first week of Live With Kelly and Mark.
“I had no concerns about how well he was going to do and he really proved me right,” the Live Wire author, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly following the couple’s cohosting debut. “I’m so proud of him, but I was never worried.”
Ripa gushed, “The thing I love about Mark is how funny he is,” adding that she gave her partner some words of wisdom before his first episode on Monday, April 17. “The advice I gave him was to just keep being yourself, enjoy every moment and be present,” she told Us. “He took it from there.”
The All My Children alums, who have been married since 1996, brought their chemistry to the daytime talk show as permanent cohosts after Ryan Seacrest‘s final episode on April 14. (The American Idol personality, 48, announced his exit in February after nearly six years on Live.)
According to preliminary numbers, Monday’s episode delivered the best performance of the year so far among key demographics of women viewers, increasing its performance from 2022 by double digit percentages.
Ripa and her husband share daughter Lola, 21, and sons Michael, 25, and Joaquin, 20, and have only fallen more in love with one another in the years since tying the knot. “The secret to their marriage is that they are open,” a source exclusively tells Us. “They laugh all time, they love each other and they actually really like each other.”
According to the insider, the Daytime Emmy winner was initially “worried” that Consuelos “would have too much on his plate” with Live and his acting commitments, but her concerns quickly subsided as he works “on other jobs later in the day.”
Throughout their first week on the ABC series, Ripa and the Riverdale actor have welcomed guests including TLC’s Chilli, Scott Foley, Ray Romano and more. Consuelos opened up about settling into his new role during a Wednesday, April 19, radio interview, joking that he’s gone “off the rails” slightly on set.
“I can’t do tomorrow’s show now, I can’t do yesterday’s show over again,” he explained of his mindset on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “If it’s great, great. If it’s not so great, we’ll try better next time. And that’s been my approach. Just kind of be in the moment.”
The New Jersey native, meanwhile, gave Us a glimpse of how she and the Pitch alum wind down after a long week at the office. “We love to have long family dinners on Sunday, then [watch] reality TV,” she revealed. “Love is Blind is our favorite. I’m not calling it a guilty pleasure, it’s a guilt-free pleasure.”
Ripa previously gushed about her partnership with Consuelos — both as spouses and as coworkers — in February. “Mark and I owe everything we have in our professional lives to ABC. We met there at the beginning of our careers and got married and had our kids while there,” she exclusively told Us. “So many wonderful moments have happened while with ABC, so it only makes sense for us to come full circle and work together once again for the show that has given us so much joy and so many years of memories.”
