Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are the perfect example of true love.
The pair first fell for each other in 1995. Now, three kids and 24 years of marriage later, there is so much we can learn from them about marriage — and about the inner workings of their relationship.
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Here are 10+ sweet things fans probably didn’t know.
1. They met on the soap opera, *All My Children*.
Mark was smitten the moment he met Kelly in 1995.
“I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff,” he told HuffPost Live . But, he didn’t think he had a chance with her.
Little did he know at the time that Kelly *was* interested.
“I was drawn to Mark because he was positively an alpha male, and I didn’t think I would be drawn to that,” she told Elle back in 2013. “I just worship him.”
2. They eloped.
After only a year of dating, Consuelos proposed in an unconventional way: they were eating pizza at drinking wine when he proposed… a plan.
He said, ‘Let’s go to Vegas tomorrow and get married.”
As it turns out, he *was* serious.
The pair eloped in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996, and then had their honeymoon in Italy.
While a lot of elopements don’t last, these two have defied all odds. They recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary.
3. They only exchanged rings on their 10th wedding anniversary.
Since their elopment was so spur-of-the-moment, they didn’t even exchange rings.
“It must have been making him feel a certain way that I didn’t have a ring. So for our 10th anniversary we bought me a ring,” Ripa said during an interview on Anna Faris’s podcast, Unqualified .
4. They have three kids.
They’re the proud parents of two sons, Michael and Joaquin, and one daughter, Lola.
Kelly’s secret to parenting? “My sons are just as sensitive as my daughter, and my daughter is as strong as my sons.”
5. Kelly knows that her husband is hot.
Mark doesn’t need to post his own thirst-traps. Kelly will do that for him!
While promoting his show, Riversale , she posted a nude selfie of him on Instagram. She even calls him “Daddy.”
“Page 101. Daddy,” she said on *Live With Kelly & Ryan* while showing off her husband’s feature in *People’s* Sexiest Men Alive List.
“There’s daddy,” she added, which caused some people to be a little creeped out by her calling him that.
In her defense, look at him!
6. Mark feels just as lucky to have his gorgeous wife.
“I’m not gonna lie. The mrs. And I got into some freaky shizzzzz this weekend #itsbetterinthebahamas #anniversaryweekend” he captioned this image of them on Instagram practicing yoga.
7. They don’t want their kids going to a college close to them.
In a very poignant example of tough love, Kelly revealed on _On Air With Ryan Seacrest”, that she wants their kids to be independent.
“If your kid stays local — you get all of the hassle of sending your kid away to college but none of the sympathy or empathy from your friends.”
“I treat it all the same,” she told Seacrest.
“I did the same thing with my son. It’s like, ‘You’re gonna have to figure out how to be an adult, this is when you figure it out.’”
She doesn’t even want them visiting for Thanksgiving!
8. They’re business partners.
Together, they own a production company calls Milojo .
The name is actually a combination of the first two letters of their kids’ names.
One of their most notable productions is the Emmy-nominated film, The Streak .
9. Kelly wore her wedding dress to their 20th wedding anniversary trip.
I mean, she has the body for it.
The $199 dress wasn’t even bought especially for her wedding. She had gotten it five years earlier at a Barney’s Warehouse sale.
10. Kelly joined Mark on an episode of *Riverdale*.
These two may be married, but she’s also his mistress…
Two decades after they starred on All My Children together, Kelly joined her husband on the set of Riverdale to play his mistress. Nothing like some good-ole roleplay.
11. Kelly makes Mark breakfast in bed every weekend.
Um, can we be married to her?
Kelly told Good Housekeeping : “I make his coffee every day. I cook him breakfast in bed every weekend: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, wheat toast, and coffee with cream. That’s what he wants. And I serve it to him on a tray.”
12. Their kids have walked in on them doing the deed.
To make matters worse, this has happened several times. Once, even on Lola’s 18th birthday.
“You just ruined my birthday and my life,” Lola said when this happened. Not over dramatic if you ask me.
The couple had to face an “awkward brunch” after this.
Mark’s parents were even visiting at the time for Lola’s birthday. Can this get any more awkward??
Time to get a secure lock for that door, you two lovebirds!
13. They once broke up in 1996.
While the couple never shared what broke them up, Mark did reveal on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen that it happened right before they got married.
At the time, they even had to do an appearance on Live With Regis and Kathie Lee together.
“When we were together (Ripa) wouldn’t talk to me and that made me go crazy,” he said.
“So I followed her in Central Park – I stalked her, and then we went back to my place, and then we got married the next day.”
Lesson learned: stalking works, kids!
