Why Kelly Ripa’s Husband Mark Consuelos Was Reluctant to Host ‘Live’ With Her

It’s been two years since Mark Consuelos took over cohosting duties on Live With Kelly and Mark, but the role wasn’t one he was initially interested in taking on.

Kelly Ripa opened up about working with her husband on the Thursday, July 31, episode of Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast, recalling how she and Consuelos first started working together 30 years ago on the soap opera All My Children.

“We were used to working together, and over the years, we had worked together a lot. And Mark, I think by the time he took over cohosting permanently, had cohosted with me at least 100 times,” Ripa noted. “He was always filling in the last minute. COVID year, he was constantly filling in, like, he was just always there. So, he made sense to take over. We just had to make it make sense for him.”

According to Ripa, Consuelos was “not really on board” with becoming her former cohost Ryan Seacrest‘s replacement at first. “He’s like, ‘No, it’s fun to do [it] once in a while, because it’s only once in a while.’ But then, I sort of said,’ It’s so great. It’s so much easier than doing a soap. It’s such a finite amount of time, and you can still go off and have a full life,'” she said. “And so, I think that has made it really easy.”

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Ripa went on to reveal that after their weekday morning Live tapings, they “don’t see each other again until dinner.” She explained, “We need some separation. We need some mystery between us. I don’t know where he goes or what he does. I have no idea. And he doesn’t even know I’m doing this [interview].”

Consuelos joined Live as Ripa’s permanent cohost in April 2023, after which the show’s name changed to Live With Kelly and Mark. “The best thing about hosting a talk show together is people are like, ‘You guys, what happens, aren’t you worried about if you have an argument and then you have to go on the air?'” Ripa said before joking. “And I’m like, ‘We have arguments on the air.’ And it’s great to have an argument on the air because your audience becomes your counselors and they will let you know who is wrong and who is right. Spoiler alert, I’m usually right.”

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Kylie went on to ask the TV personality if she had any advice to give for the next time she and her husband, retired NFL star Jason Kelce, work together.

“I treat him with the reverence and yet the irreverence of, like, almost like a newborn baby,” Ripa shared. “I understand that you need things a certain way because without the consistency and the continuity of doing whatever it is that certain way, it makes him nervous or it makes him nervous, on edge. So, if I can avoid that, I try to avoid anything that might make him nervous or upset.”

Though Consuelos appeared on the show’s Monday, July 28, episode, he has been absent the rest of the week while in Los Angeles filming a TV show. Celebrities such as Jerry O’Connell, David Muir, and Carson Kressley have stepped in to cohost alongside Ripa.

Live With Kelly and Mark, Weekdays, check local listings