Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Are About to Celebrate 30 Years! See How ‘All My Children’ Led Them to Lasting Love
From soap opera sweethearts to talk show royalty, here's how the 55-year-old stars have kept their marriage strong
Key Takeaways
- Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos will be celebrating their 30th anniversary on May 1.
- The couple met on the set of the soap opera 'All My Children' in the '90s.
- Ripa and Consuelos often joke about their long relationship on 'Live with Kelly and Mark.'
As the hosts of Live with Kelly and Mark, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are the first couple of daytime talk shows, and they have the kind of onscreen chemistry that can only come from being real-life partners for decades. Kelly and Mark had a meet-cute in 1995 when they played love interests on the soap opera All My Children, and they married the next year. On May 1, the couple will celebrate their 30th anniversary, so we’re taking a look back at their soap star origin story and the sweet things Kelly’s said about her husband.
Love at first sight on the set of ‘All My Children’
Kelly Ripa was just 20 years old when she landed the role of Hayley Vaughan on All My Children in 1990. The bad-girl role kickstarted her career, and she played Hayley for 12 years before leaving the show in 2002. Hayley quickly became a fan favorite, and five years into her tenure, Mark Consuelos joined the cast in the role of Mateo Santos, the hunk who’d save Hayley’s life and become her third husband.
In what can only be described as fate, Ripa knew Consuelos was special before they ever met face-to-face. Remembering when he was about to audition for the show, she explained, “I saw my husband in a photograph before I saw him. I knew when I saw his photograph . . . at that point I was not a hopeless romantic. I never thought about getting married, it never occurred to me that I would grow old with someone. I just thought I would be living my single girl life in the city . . . When I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before—like I saw it. And I don’t believe in any of that and now I do because of that moment.”
The attraction between the future couple was immediate, though Consuelos was initially a little intimidated by Ripa, who was already a soap star. The unknown actor was more concerned with landing the job than starting a romance, and he recalled, “I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff. But I was very focused—I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t really focused on that.”
Soon enough, his focus shifted, and the couple eloped in Las Vegas after a year of dating in 1996. Their love story continued to grow with the arrival of their three children: son Michael (born in 1997), who followed in his parents’ footsteps as a producer and actor; daughter Lola (born in 2001), a talented musician; and youngest son Joaquin (born in 2003), who’s also pursuing acting.
How Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have made their marriage last
On Live with Kelly and Mark, the couple frequently laughs about their relationship—from getting candid about their sex life to joking about getting a “gray divorce”—and this shared sense of humor has kept their relationship strong for 30 years. While fans have sometimes wondered if Kelly and Mark’s jokes about divorce might mean a split is in the cards, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Ripa has gotten real about keeping her marriage alive through thick and thin, saying, “You’re going to fight, you’re going to have disagreements. Relationships, marriages are not sprints, it’s a marathon. There’s going to be like, mile 24, when you’re like, ‘I quit.’ But you just got to push through. Just push through,” and noting, “If you take a breath, you usually can’t remember what you’re fighting about.” Looking back on the early days of their marriage, she claimed that their first year together was the hardest and said, “you have to just not panic because you’ll settle into each other.”
Kelly’s down-to-earth wisdom about marriage—acknowledging the hard parts while staying committed to the journey—has clearly paid off, and three decades in, her marriage to Consuelos is better than ever. In a 2025 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, she called her husband “my favorite person” and said, “I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you, and beyond loving you, I really like you a lot.” A marriage that lasts as long as Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ is a rare thing in the entertainment industry, and the fact that husband and wife genuinely like one another so much makes them delightful to watch. From soap stars to talk show hosts, they’ve been on quite the journey together, and we wish them many more years of wedded bliss.
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