Mark Consuelos Says Both He and Kelly Ripa Initially Thought It Was ‘Insane’ for Him to Host ‘Live’ With Her
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are reflecting on the decision to have him join her as a permanent co-host on Live — one year after the historic move!
Consuelos took his seat next to Ripa in 2023 following the news of her former co-host, Ryan Seacrest’s, departure. On the latest episode of Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, the husband and wife duo discuss why they thought it was a bad move at first.
“So, when they asked me, we both said, ‘No, this is insane. We can’t do this,’ and then we started talking about it, I remember us talking about it. I’m like, ‘No, you know, no,'” Consuelos says.
“The answer was no, but we’ll talk about it, but just kind of try to get them off our back a little bit, and then when we talked about it, I know that one of the key deciding factors for me was over the past seven years leading up to, you know, this past year I’d been gone so much. I’d been, you know, in different countries, different states, on a damn airplane every week if not twice a week,” Consuelos recalls. “Sometimes I’d come see you for 24 hours and get back on a plane and go back to work, and so I was kind of tired of living by myself. I don’t sleep well when I’m away from you. I literally don’t sleep.”
The pair came to a resolve after Consuelos made a “pros and cons” list where he says that the cons weren’t really realistic.
“I know one of the cons, you said, ‘Well, what if you never get to act again?'” he tells Ripa. “And I said, ‘I know me and you can’t tell me I’m never gonna do anything again.'”
The news of Consuelos joining his wife on her longtime talk show was revealed in February 2023. At the time, a source told ET that the choice to have Ripa’s former All My Children co-star by her side was easy following Seacrest’s exit after six years.
“Choosing Mark as Kelly’s new co-host was easy,” the source said. “The network and Kelly wanted to avoid her and a new co-host not hitting it off. Mark and Kelly have hosted before and it’s always gone well with fan reaction.”
Consuelos says that he wouldn’t have thought about doing the job if it wasn’t for his longtime love sitting next to him.
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“There’s no way I would’ve decided to say yes to doing this job if it wasn’t you sitting next to me and I’m not just saying that because it sounds great,” he tells Ripa. “There’s just no way I would’ve even … I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t. There’s no way.”
Ripa shares that she is proud of her husband’s hosting abilities and quips that he’s ready to do it on his own.
“But you’ve made the show your own. I could definitely walk off into the sunset and this show is a hundred percent your own,” she tells Consuelos.
In March, ahead of Consuelos’ one-year anniversary on Live, ET spoke with the couple, who revealed how many years together at the desk they have left in them.
“Until it’s not fun,” Consuelos told ET about their working relationship.
“Honestly, I’ve spent my life with him, I can do things with him for decades,” Ripa said. “I guess decades is your answer.”
