Kelly Ripa opened up about her marriage to actor Mark Consuelos, revealing she was so worried that once they became empty nesters they would be that couple that ended up divorced.
The co-host of “Live with Kelly and Ryan” told People magazine that her marriage is still going strong after 26 years and all three kids out of the house.
“On paper it should not have worked and when it didn’t work, we really worked at it,” Ripa explained. “We fought for our marriage when it would have been easier to quit and throw in the towel.”
“Listen, my parents have been married for 61 years and Mark’s parents have been married for 55 years,” she added. “We didn’t know any other way.”
She also described being an empty nester as “scary, thrilling, liberating, shocking… and quiet.”
“I didn’t know how to make dinner proportionally,” the 51-year-old co-host shared. “Now, it’s 10 p.m. and we’ll eat. There were moments when I was like, ‘We’re going to be that couple: Our third child goes to college and we get divorced because this is it.”
“But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette,” she added. “These other parents were running around us with small kids. I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn’t run into the water when I wasn’t looking. So I think for us, it was ‘Oh, this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great.'”
Kelly Ripa is getting real about the challenges she faced in her career as a woman, her marriage and more. Watch the full PEOPLE cover special, here: https://t.co/U7enPIbtcV pic.twitter.com/H5YIAqnFbS
— People (@people) September 26, 2022
In Ripa’s new book, “Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories,” the TV host discusses her sex life. She says the book is “meant to be a thrill ride, a little bit of a rollercoaster, a little laughter.” But she added that she hopes those reading it will “consider things from a different perspective than what they thought they knew,” People reported.