Kelly Ripa Reflects on Meeting Mark Consuelos on 'All My Children' and Starting Their Family (Exclusive)

Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Radio Hall of Fame

The couple met while starring on the ABC soap in the '90s.

Kelly Ripa is thinking back to the start of her relationship with her husband, Mark Consuelos. ET's Rachel Smith speaks to Ripa on Tuesday's Entertainment Tonight about how her and Consuelos' life together began while they were both starring on All My Children as Hayley Vaughan and Mateo Santos.

The pair tied the knot in 1996 and went on to have three kids, Michael, 23, Lola, 19, and Joaquin, 17.

"All My Children is responsible for my entire life. I don't like say that lightly. I met my husband on All My Children. I had my children on All My Children," Ripa shares. "I got [Live With Regis and Kelly] standing in my dressing room on All My Children. It's responsible for my entire life. I'm not being glib when I say that."

In fact, Ripa says she was "devastated" when the show went off the air in 2011. "Not for myself because I had left the show by then, but I was devastated for the fan base cause it means so much to them," she explains.

Ripa and Consuelos love the show so much that they're executive producing Pine Valley, a primetime follow-up series for ABC that's in early development.

While the couple has their next professional project in the works, Ripa is already thinking ahead to their retirement, which she'd like to live out in Palm Springs, California.

She'll get a good look at her dream retirement destination during this week's Live With Kelly and Ryan, where she and co-host Ryan Seacrest will virtually visit the California location as well as Austin, Texas, and Miami, Florida.

"I am very excited that I am getting a jump start on this," Ripa says of her retirement plans. "I am going to take a virtual real estate tour to go with our virtual show."

Meanwhile, Seacrest notes that he's looking forward to actually traveling once it's safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I want to go to beaches. I actually want to go overseas. I would love to go have some really good Italian food," he says. "I would like to gallivant far far away."

As for how Ripa's family travels, she notes, "I have to say that we, the Consuelos family, we like to go off the beaten path and we try to not have a schedule. We go where the people who live there go... We tend to ask local people, 'What do you like to eat? Where do you like to go?'... We are a bit spontaneous and nomadic when it comes to travel."

Live With Kelly and Ryan brings fun in the sun to their at-home audience from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26 with Live's Virtual Road Trip. Tune in to Tuesday's episode of Entertainment Tonight to see more of ET's interview with Ripa and Seacrest.

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