She may be one of the most popular talk show hosts on television, but even she has her quirks.
The renowned pair Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, who frequently appears on “Live!” with Kelly and Ryan, recently revealed an intriguing fact about Ripa’s eating habits, which make their kids “grossed out.” The pair has three kids together: Michael, Lola, and Joaquin. They were married in 1996 after meeting on the soap opera “All My Children.”
Michael, the oldest, is pursuing an entertainment career in the same manner as his parents. He even appeared as a younger version of his father’s character on the hit television program Riverdale. Joaquin competes in wrestling at the University of Michigan, while Lola is presently a music student at New York University.
On March 7, 2022, Ripa and Consuelos made the decision to tell their audience on a specific episode of “Live!” that their kids found Kelly’s eating habits, in particular, to be rather disgusting. Ripa said their children are normally “grossed out” by them, but it worsens when they eat. She even admitted that they often make fun of her eating style.
Consuelos chimed in and described Kelly’s peculiar eating habits. According to him, she has a “very interesting way of eating food.” He continued by describing how she would pick up food with her hands and then put her fingers in her mouth.
He showed this by imitating Ripa’s gestures by inserting his thumb, index finger, and middle finger into his mouth, saying, “You eat normal food normally, but every now and then, if there’s something that can be [eaten] with your fingers, you’ll go in—first of all you’ll put the plate in front of me, and then you’ll go in and grab it, and then you stick all three fingers, the tips of all three fingers, into your mouth.”
Consuelos said that this peculiar habit is not just restricted to finger foods. He disclosed that Ripa has even been known to consume cakes in this way, particularly when she only wants a little portion. Consuelos even jokingly teased his wife, saying she was probably fed with just three fingers as a baby.
Meanwhile, the couple has encountered their children’s opposition to their eating habits less regularly now that their children don’t reside with them full-time. They are, however, now getting used to having empty nests.
In a September 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, after their youngest kid had departed for college, Ripa talked about the bittersweet experience. She thought about the advice people had given them about how quickly kids grew up and left the house, and she admitted that, at the time, they hadn’t completely understood the truth of those words.
“The worst part is… people would say to us, ‘Oh, don’t blink because they grow up before you know it, and they’ll be out of the house.’ And when you’re in it, you’re so tired, you’re so like, bone-tired in your bones that you can’t believe that’s true,” she shared.
“But we did. We blinked, unfortunately, and now they are grown adults. So, I think that’s really the worst part is that we didn’t slow down in real time to appreciate that aspect of them when they were small because we were so busy protecting them and making sure they were turning into good people and getting things done on time.”
While Ripa confessed about that, she playfully mentioned that there was no longer any washing or dishes to do in their house as an example of one plus of having an empty nest, saying, “I will say the best part is there’s no laundry in our house. There’s no dishes. There’s, like, nothing! Nothing! There’s nothing.”
Although Ripa and Consuelos’ kids may find their eating habits to be a little off-putting, it is evident that the couple’s odd behavior simply enhances their distinctive chemistry and the stories they tell to their “Live!” audience with Kelly and Ryan.
