Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Won an Emmy But Skipped Event to Visit Daughter: ‘So Unexpected’

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos won a Daytime Emmy on Friday, June 7 — but they skipped the event to visit their daughter, Lola, in London.

The Live with Kelly and Mark cohosts — who received their first Outstanding Talk Series Host award last week — gave a delayed acceptance speech on the Monday, June 10, episode of their show.

“The unthinkable happened, Ripa, 53, said.

“So unexpected,” Consuelos, 53, added, noting that Jerry O’Connell texted him to say he was available to accept their statues. “He said, ‘Hey, if you guys win, can I give the acceptance speech.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Who do you want to thank?’ I said, ‘Thank Ryan Seacrest,’” Consuelos joked, in reference to Ripa’s previous cohost, whom he replaced.

Ripa said she was sleeping at the time, but when she woke up, her husband said to her, “Yo, we won an Emmy,” recalling that she asked him, “For what?”

“My phone, as the young kids say, was blowing up,” Consuelos said.

“We weren’t there to give our speech but I’m going to give a brief acceptance speech,” Ripa said, “I just want to say, first and foremost, thank you, Mark, for being an incredible, incredible partner. You make it look easy and it is not easy and the ease at which you do this job inspires me and all of us every single day.”

Ripa told the audience that “you make us feel like Emmy winners every day, which we are certainly not,” adding, “But we owe it all to you. So thank you very much.”

“That was good,” Consuelos quipped. “I would have said, my dad always told me to marry somebody who’s better than you and try to work with people who are way better than you, as well. So I’ve done both those things. So thank you. Thank you for holding me up. I appreciate it.”

Consuelos added of their soap opera pasts: “Daytime, for us, really started our careers.”

“It means everything to us,” Ripa said. “I always wanted to win a Daytime Emmy as an actor. I was nominated once. I think it was like a mercy nomination. But it’s so — it’s so cool. It’s still hitting me that we did that. It’s very, very, very cool.”

The couple, who wed in 1996, share sons Michael, 27, and Joaquin, 21, and daughter Lola, 22.

Following her graduation from New York University, Lola moved to London after meeting a boyfriend while studying abroad. Her award-winning parents said they had a “pre-planned visit” before they knew about the Daytime Emmy ceremony. “She really wanted to see us,” Consuelos told the audience.