Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have been one of television’s most enduring couples.
They’ve worked together for decades. They clearly share a sense of humor. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re both incredibly hot.
Fans are understandably shocked to hear Mark describe their “agonizing” split.
And folks, you will not believe the gambit that he pulled to try to win her back.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos broke up just one week before their wedding
During an appearance on the Skinny Confidential podcast this week, Mark Consuelos recalled his split with Kelly Ripa. It was brief. It also took place just one week before their wedding day.
“We eloped,” he acknowledged. “It’s pretty famously eloped and we told no one for a month.” They married on May 1, 1996.
“But, if you would’ve asked me a week before I got married and said, ‘When do you think you’re going to get married?,'” Mark admitted, “I would be like ‘I don’t know, maybe never, or 10 years or 15 years from now. And I was 25 years old.”
“It’s kind of a funny story as we broke up the week before. I broke up with her because I was dumb,” Mark admitted.
“And it was the most agonizing week of my life,” he added. “And I just knew I never wanted to feel like that. I’ve never felt like that in my life.” We believe it!
“She didn’t return any of my calls,” Mark recalled of the week. Fortunately, they were All My Children co-stars.
“And then we were meant to do a bit of PR together. We were on a soap and ironically, we were both going to be presenting a winner, it was Queen for the day, and we both tried to get out of it.”
His regrets were instant and powerful
“She looked amazing. And I was like, ‘Oh man, she looks so good. Boy did I screw up,'” Mark Consuelos said, gushing over wife Kelly Ripa 29 years and some change later.
“And so we do the segment. We barely speak to each other,” he narrated. “I’m trying to speak to her. We both smoked cigarettes back then. And so she went out for a smoke break.” (Yikes! But the story does get better)
Mark continued: “I said, ‘Do you mind if I come out with you?’ She said, “Yeah, if you want.’ And so that happened.”
“And then after the segment was done, she lived on the West Side,” Mark detailed.
“I followed her and begged her to take a walk with me through Central Park.” Gentlemanly, but not without an agenda.
“And she really didn’t want to but I was convincing and so she did. And then we ended up back at my place,” he shared.
“I lived downtown,” Mark explained. He then stunned the podcast host, adding:
“And I asked her to marry me.”
He asked her to marry him THE SAME DAY?!
“She said, ‘Ask me when you’re serious,'” Mark Consuelos recalled of Kelly Ripa replying to his proposal.
“And I said, ‘I am dead serious. We have a day off work tomorrow,'” he concluded the story. “‘Let’s fly to Vegas and get married.'”
That is precisely what they did. And they didn’t tell anyone about marrying for a month.
They have also remained married for what will soon be 29-and-a-half years. That’s older than some of the people who watched them on Riverdale.