Kelly Ripa was wearing a bunch of hair rollers and nary a drop of makeup when a “gorgeous” stranger walked onto the set of the soap opera All My Children one day in 1995 to audition for a role. Kelly had been co-starring on the venerable show since 1990 as the troubled party girl Hayley Vaughan, a popular character, while Consuelos had arrived to the screen test for the recurring role of nice guy Mateo Santos. Consuelos passed the audition opposite Ripa and he was cast.
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A quick fast-forward on the soap opera timeline found Hayley and Mateo falling in love, tying the knot less than two years later, and enjoying a happy marriage for years to come (well, relatively “happy”—it is a soap opera, after all!).
Hayley and Mateo’s on-screen nuptials practically followed a map that Ripa and Consuelos had drawn for themselves. Much like Hayley and Vaughan, the two fell in love with each other soon after they met and began working together, and then got married in 1996, a year after they met on the set.
Kelly and Mark Met on the Set of All My Children in 1995
It was the beginning of a 26-year marriage that has would find Ripa and Consuelos building a both a family that includes three children, alongside two thriving show business careers that frequently find them working together on-screen, just as they did when they first met.
Ripa is seen every weekday morning as one half of the popular syndicated morning talk show Live with Kelly and Ryan, when she appears alongside co-host Ryan Seacrest. Meanwhile, Consuelos has starred and appeared in a number of TV movies and series over the past two decades, including 1-800-Missing, Alpha House, the recent hit Riverdale and, back in 2003, the sitcom Hope & Faith, starring his then relatively new wife Kelly Ripa.
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It was with Hope & Faith and Consuelos’ recurring role in the show that the couple began working together on various projects. This is highlighted by Consuelos' regular appearances on Live as either a guest or co-host or via the telephone or Zoom (whenever Ripa feels like ringing him up).
The pair’s collaborative relationship also led to the creation of their joint production company, Milojo Productions, which was named after the first two letters of their three children’s names, Michael, Lola and Joaquin.
Now in its 15th year, the company has developed and produced numerous projects for various networks over the past decade-and-a-half, with a focus on reality-based, doc-styled programming. Some of Milojo’s shows include Masters of Reception, Fire Island, My Diet Is Better Than Yours, Secret Guide To Fabulous and the recent true-crime series Exhumed: Killer Revealed. Milojo is also a co-producer of the comedy-filled game show Generation Gap, which features children working with older adults. It’s hosted by Ripa and currently seen on ABC.
Kelly and Mark Created a Successful Joint Production Company
There’s also been talk that nearly 30 years after they first met on the set of All My Children, Ripa and Consuelos will return to their roots by producing a primetime spin-off of the show entitled Pine Valley. (Pine Valley is the name of the fictional town that provided the setting for All My Children, which was official cancelled in 2011.)
When their youngest son, 19-year-old Joaquim, began attending the University of Michigan last September, Ripa and Consuelos became empty nesters for the first time in nearly 20 years. It seemingly took the pair a while to adjust to their newly quiet home—they even headed out to Michigan to visit their son a month into his freshman year and continue to “drop by” regularly—but it looks like they’re both keeping busy. And, as before, it looks like the Mr. and Mrs. are working together whenever possible, with Consuelos last co-hosting Live for several days in August.
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Now Ripa and her crew are readying for the publication of her first book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories (it arrives on Sept. 27), a collection of real-life stories from the lively lady about her career, collaborators, husband and family. Not surprisingly, Consuelos will be joining Ripa on several stops of her nationwide book tour, which kicks off this week and will take her to New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan.
Kelly’s chatty friends Anderson Cooper, Bethany Frankel, Justin Sylvester and Jerry O’Connell are also scheduled to pop up at some of the events. (And a stop in Michigan may be a clue that a certain youngest son might make an appearance.)
Kelly and Mark Are The Parents of Three Adult Children
In an Instagram video of Ripa and Consuelos chatting in bed that Ripa uploaded to Instagram and cutely captioned “scenes from the marital bed, book tour edition,” the first-time author promises that the book tour events will be “a lot of laughs and it’s going to be a little bit dirty—this is not the morning show!,” while describing the stories in the book as “relevant, pertinent and titillating.” For his part, Consuelos describes his wife’s book as “dishy” and “unfiltered.”
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Watching the clip strangely summons up an image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and their memorable “Bed-In for Peace” event back in 1969, which found the newly married couple speaking to the press and the public from their honeymoon bed in an Amsterdam Hotel. The pair were famous for never leaving each other’s side and regularly collaborating on projects together. (“We dig being together all the time,” Lennon famously said.)
Mark Will Be On Hand for Appearances on Kelly's Book Tour
Of course, John and Yoko’s Bed-In was in protest of the Vietnam War, while the Ripa-Consuelos communique was in a form of promotional sales video, but the idea of a mattress-bound collaborative effort strikes the same note.
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There’s no denying that Ripa and Consuelos’ all-in recipe for their marriage is unique and one that is definitely not to every couple’s taste. But for those who want to define themselves as being part of an inseparable and loving team, it works—and no doubt offers its practitioners the kind of fulfilling lifestyle they are seeking.
