Remember how it was just announced that Ryan Seacrest was leaving Live with Kelly and Ryan? And remember the second part of that announcement was that Ryan would be replaced with Kelly’s husband Mark Consuelos? Yeah, me too.
So Kelly has a new podcast, because I guess she needs even more outlets to share her business. It’s called Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa. Guess who her first guest was? Malala. No, wait – sorry, I mean Kelly’s husband Mark Consuelos. The pair discussed their marriage, which is 26-years old now. They talked about going to counseling once they became empty nesters and how they’ve changed since they first married. One of the things that Kelly said changed is Mark’s insane jealousy. Apparently, Kelly couldn’t even smile at a 70-year-old man without setting Mark off when they were newlyweds. But her husband Marksplained how it’s all better now… and how it isn’t totally weird that Kelly has to bring him to work everywhere she goes.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are getting real about the ups and down in their 26-year marriage, including some of the hurdles they’ve had to overcome over the years.
The couple opened up about their romance on the premiere episode of Ripa’s new Sirius XM podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa that dropped Wednesday, explaining that they pulled through some of the tough times in their relationship by addressing their issues together.
“It always gets better,” said Consuelos, 51. “If you communicate and talk it through, literally, there’s nothing that’s insurmountable.”
That doesn’t mean they’re not still aware of the bad times said Ripa, 52, recalling how they clashed in the past over Consuelos’ jealous behavior.
“My biggest complaint about you over the course of our marriage — and this is not recent, ’cause it definitely changed, and I don’t know if I changed or if you changed or if it was some combination of change — but you used to be insanely jealous,” said Ripa. “And that was a hard pill to swallow. It’s very hard being married to somebody who is jealous. … It’s unattractive.”
She went on to note that Consuelos often got jealous over “a perception of a scenario” that wasn’t accurate. As an example, she told a story that happened early on after the All My Children lovebirds secretly eloped in 1996, when a waiter at a restaurant in Boston sweetly called her a “princess” in Italian.
“The waiter was a very cute old man. He was definitely in his 70s, if not 80s,” Ripa remembered. “I thought it was so cute that this old man called me a princess. And I looked at him and I gave him my order in a very smiley way. And he walked away and you picked a horrible fight with me.”
Consuelos — who is set to join his wife as co-host on Live next month, replacing Ryan Seacrest — confirmed the story, telling Ripa, “I got upset.”
“Look, at age 25, I was pretty insane. But that jealousy thing definitely followed me for a while,” he said. “I’m not jealous anymore. … It’s a character flaw. It’s ugly. And as ugly as it feels to the person who is on the receiving end of it, it’s such an ugly feeling inside. If this is any consolation, you know you’re being crazy. The jealous person knows that this is wrong and it’s ugly but they can’t help it.”
Asked “what changed,” Consuelos said it was all about self-growth. “I wanted to do some work on myself,” he said. “That was one of the major things that I needed to work on, because it was getting in the way.”
I don’t know Kelly or Mark, so I assume if they say this is no longer an issue, it isn’t. I appreciate Mark owned it as an ugly flaw. It does make one wonder why this came up in the first place. Hey, you don’t do this anymore, but I thought the world should know how you were a complete @$$hole and here is a very specific example. That sounds like a lot more than ‘learn from our mistakes.’ And, as I not so subtly alluded to, makes this whole co-hosting thing look suspect. They also went into detail about sex-timing while Mark was filming Riverdale during Covid. It was a closed set so he couldn’t come home for 10 months. They had what Kelly referred to as “sexual rituals” over Facetime. And later in the podcast Mark, who called himself a “lifer” when it comes to marriage, said the only real deal-breaker was if Kelly just refused to have sex with him anymore. He did say if she had a medical condition that disabled her, that was different. So that’s good. But I used to think their constant referring to their sex life was performative. If there is “insane jealous” at play, though, it starts to feel like there’s some kind of dominance involved. Especially since we know Mark believes only one person in the relationship is allowed to wear the pants – and it’s him.
I do like, though, that Kelly and Mark are talking about getting marriage counseling as empty nesters. I think people always see expiration dates for therapy and there are none. They have been married a long time and I appreciate they talk about working on their relationship. Maybe just not so many details?
Photos Credit: SDS/Avalon, Getty and via Instagram
These two need to zip it up. They are waaaay over-exposed and she has had a bad habit of discussing her kids too much. Seems like they are decent people and raised decent kids but they really need to stop talking now and just do their jobs. They can easily slide into super annoying if they don’t watch it .
They already have slipped into super annoying. They just won’t shut up.
I am exhausted in their constant need to parade their wholesome, loving and supportive marriage every chance they get. It always make me feel hinky when someone goes out of their way on a constant basis to push the perfect marriage scenario. What are they actually hiding???
As for Mark replacing RS, we will see the ratings nosedive as it ends up exploding into flames.
Agreed! They are just as bad as Kristen and Dax.
Omg I was just going to say this, Kristen and creepy Dax.
These people think their lives are so fascinating that all of us should hear absolutely everything about it all the time.
I cannot understand the appeal of this woman. Shes just another bland toothy grinning botoxed bleach blond who are dime a dozen in the USA.
Why don’t I believe him when he says if she was sick or disabled it would be ok?
Yeah same. On one hand, I do understand the importance of that physical connection. I think it’s imperative for both partners to make time for sex and sometimes that means giving in to the other person even if you’re not super-enthused, tired or whatever. But if I’m just not feeling it, I’m not afraid to say no. I’m not worried that my partner will get angry or feel rejected etc. He respects my wishes.
IDK I just think it’s kind of poor form for him to say that if his partner stops having sex with him that it’s automatically a “deal-breaker” instead of asking WHY she might not want to cuz maybe it’s a YOU problem, dude.
She even said that during menopause she really wanted a break from having to sleep with him. He wouldn’t give her a break. He comes across as very dominating and a misogynist. He seems like an exhausting partner.
Don’t they say that cheaters are the ones who are actually the most suspicious and jealous? That’s the vibe I get from Mark.
I don’t know much about them but he gives off douche vibes – he has that ‘im hot and I know it’ air about him that rubs me up the wrong way. She comes off as a serious attention seeker.
I’m getting Red Table Talk/Jada and Will vibes here.
Kelly Ripa is the TMI Queen.
She and Mark are not that interesting, neither are their kids.
They are mutl-millionaires, unless they are doing PR for a project, please stop telling us everything.
Yes, annoying, just like Chrisie T., and Dax.
They both really annoy me. Her more than him. There are some stories out there about him being a nice guy. Like, when he was on only murders..he came in for two days, didn’t have scenes with any of the stars and was great to the cast and crew and told everyone how much he loved the show and was so happy to be there. I literally can’t recall one decent story about her.
This seems to be the only part of their relationship they ever talk about. Give it a rest. We get it. You can’t keep your hands off each other and are amazing together. Why try so hard to convince strangers that will never meet you how great your marriage is?
It is weird that he will be her co host. She is super flirty with some guests is that why??
I talked a lot as a kid, and my mom had this great advice…”be quiet and let people wonder a bit about what you are up too.” Kelly dear make me wonder just a little here. My mom was too nice to say please for the love of heaven stop talking lol.
Didn’t she once joke her idea of a day of relaxation didn’t involve sex and his did. I don’t know if I could sit through an hour of them alone let alone together. Super annoying
I think their marriage is a big part of their brand and he hasn’t had much going on since Riverdale. It’s cloying and over saturated, but I don’t think there’s nefarious stuff happening. I also think with the power and connections Kelly has, someone would’ve outed Mark and gotten her out if it was an abusive relationship.