Keep it PG! Kelly Ripa and Mark Conseulos’ older kids want them to keep their hands to themselves.
“So my daughter and my older son, if there’s PDA, they are disgusted. And by PDA I don’t mean … We’re not making out, but if there’s PDA, like, if Mark gives me a kiss, they’re like, ‘Ugh, ugh!’” Ripa, 48, exclusively told Us Weekly of Lola, 17, and Michael, 21. “I mean, really, that’s the reaction. They’re disgusted!”
However, Ripa and Consuelos’ youngest son Joaquin, 15, is all for his parents’ lovey-dovey relationship. “He’s like, ‘Aw, that’s so nice.’ He’s still sweet,” the Live With Kelly and Ryan host gushed to Us. “They haven’t ruined him yet, the other two, but I know it’s coming. I’ve got, like, a year left and then he’ll be like, ‘Ew!’”
The Hope & Faith alum also opened up about how her and the Riverdale star’s parenting styles differ between their kids. “We were helicopter parents, we were lawnmower parents, we were those bulldozer parents, and then we learned to just leave the other two alone,” she explained of raising Michael in a a stricter manner. “But they really have always had a very strong sense of self. It’s just been up to us to stay out of their way and let them develop into who they are and we’ve tried not to put our opinions on them. We’re like, ‘This is your life. You have to form your own thoughts and ideas.’”
Ripa, who has partnered with Ancestry.com to promote its DNA tests to find your roots, added: “Some of it’s developed at school, some of it’s developed by their friends, some of it’s developed by what they absorb listening to their parents talk, but they really are their own people. Because, if you knew the three of them, you would swear they were raised by different families. That’s how different they are.”
Ripa and Conseulos, who tied the knot in 1996 after falling in love while costarring on All My Children, aren’t afraid of empty nest syndrome now that their children are getting older. “Mark and I had our kids so young that Joaquin will be out of the house and, in three years, we’re still going to be young,” she told Us. “I mean, we’re not gonna be newborns, but we’re gonna be young. Young enough to still have a full life, so I’m not dreading that at all.”
With reporting by Brody Brown
