WhenMark Consuelospulls up that coveted chair besideKelly Ripaas co-host of the newly titledLive With Kelly and Markon April 17, it will be “a complete full circle moment” for the real-life married couple.
“To have Mark join me at that desk every day, it’s a dream come true,” Kelly, 52, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “We’ve been so uniquely blessed.”
As for what the pairing means for the irreverent and feel-good show? “It’s going to be off the rails!” Kelly says, with a laugh.
“It’s indescribable [and] we’re super, super grateful,” says Mark, who first made an impression on Kelly when she eyed his smoking-hot headshot nearly 30 years ago.
Miller Mobley
“I’m a very practical person, but there wassomethingabout him,” says Kelly of the moment in 1994 when the casting director forAll My Childrenshowed her a photo of Mark, then a budding 24-year-old actor up for a role opposite Kelly, already one of the soap’s breakout stars. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s my person. This is my husband. My future hubs.’ I just knew it.”
As fate would have it, Kelly’s intuition was spot on. The pair fell hard and fast while working onAll My Children, and over 28 years, built a family — they share kidsMichael, 25,Lola, 21, andJoaquin, 20 — and thriving individual careers.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.ABC/Getty
And now, 22 years after Kelly began co-hostingLiveand helped make it the No. 1-rated daytime talk show it is today, Mark, 52, is excited to get in on the action.
For the power duo, teaming up onLiveoffers an ideal chance to hang out together after spending long stretches apart for work over the last decade.
“During the pandemic whenRiverdalewas shut down for about six months, it was the first time we had been together uninterrupted for like, five years,” says Kelly. “I prefer the togetherness. I really enjoy being around him — he’s great company, so funny, so smart, insightful, pragmatic and super level-headed. He doesn’t get rattled, and that’s very reassuring and comforting to be around.”
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.David M. Russell/Walt Disney/ABC
Of course, like any enduring married couple, they’ve had towork hard at growing their healthy partnership. “I don’t understand when people say, ‘We never fight.’ I go, ‘Oh, they’re in trouble,'” says Kelly, who eloped with Mark in Vegas in 1996.
“Many people we know have gone through a divorce and a separation and when you ask ‘Why did you guys wind up getting a divorce?’, it’s always the same answer: ‘I don’t really know.’ I feel like we could have over the years let something small turn into that and [instead] we just put our heads down, got together and said ‘Let’s work it out…'”
She adds: “Now we can work it out on camera!”
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Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.Miller Mobley
While they don’t intend to drag outallthe dirty laundry (“We’re not going to be like ‘About that thing you said about my mother…'” she says), they’ve never been ones to hold back.
“We’re not afraid to go there,” she says. “We have the confidence in our marriage that no matter what we discuss, I don’t mind being the villain in the argument, nor does Mark. Neither one of us needs to be the hero.”
And given the already upbeat, playful tone ofLive, Mark says, “If we think something is really going to be funny, then it can be magic.”
Watch the full episode of People Cover Story:Kelly Ripa& Mark Consuelos below
For more of the exclusive cover interview withKelly Ripaand Mark Consuelos, pick up an issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
source: people.com
