Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos prove that lasting love doesn't always take the conventional route.
The 49-year-old daytime talk show host and the 49-year-old Riverdale actor celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary on Friday, and it's safe to say the two are more in love than ever. Ripa and Consuelos met in 1995 when they co-starred together on the popular soap opera All My Children, and eloped in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996.
Ripa previously revealed they actually briefly broke up before tying the knot.
"We broke up and we got back together the day before we went off and eloped," she said during the debut episode of Betches' Comments by Celebs podcast in 2018. "Yeah, we eloped. We went to Vegas and got married."
"He popped the question the day before we got married, but that day, that very day that we got back together, we were at a taping of Regis and Kathie Lee," she continued to recall. "It was their Mother’s Day special. They were pre-taping it, and one of the dreams of one of the mothers was to meet Mark and me. We were her favorite characters on All My Children. She wanted to meet us, and I think we drove out a new car or pushed out a new pool table or something. She got a present from her kids and we brought it out to her. It all is so connected."
Back in February 2019, Consuelos also dished about their breakup during his appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
"We both had to meet and do an appearance on Live With Regis and Kathie Lee. We were pushing furniture for a 'Queen for the Day' Mother's Day special and when we were together she wouldn’t talk to me and that made me go crazy," he admitted. "So, I followed her in Central Park, and then we went back to my place, and we got married the next day."
"It wasn't a big breakup!" he added with a laugh.
Consuelos said he knew Ripa was the one "pretty early on."
"We would go out with groups of people from work and slowly each date would go that the groups started getting smaller and smaller until it was just us two," he shared. "I was shy, I wasn't very aggressive that way."
In May 2018, Ripa actually posted photos from their 1996 wedding on Instagram in honor of their 22nd wedding anniversary. In the priceless pics, Ripa is wearing a little black dress while Consuelos sports a suit, as they pose outside Chapel of the Bells wedding chapel and cut the cake together.
"Feliz Aniversario lover! 22 years," she wrote. "You’re a human roller coaster that luckily I’m tall enough to ride. @instasuelos."
Meanwhile, Consuelos shared his own throwback pic from their honeymoon in Italy.
"5-1-96...happy 22nd anniversary Boo.. seems like yesterday to me," Consuelos wrote. "I'm sure it feels a lot longer to you...(honeymoon photo Capri, Italy ... we're still banned from that hotel... it was worth it)."
On Friday, the two once again took to Instagram to share sweet messages for one another.
"Happy Anniversary to the love of my life, or at least half my life @instasuelos cheers to 24 years! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️," Ripa captioned a slideshow of pictures of the two together over the years.
As for Consuelos, he shared a close-up photo of him embracing her from behind, with her wedding band on prominent display.
"Making a life, sharing a history, holding you close for 24 years," he wrote. "I love you @kellyripa."
Last April, Consuelos opened up about their long-lasting marriage and talked about their life together. The two share three kids together -- 22-year-old Michael, 18-year-old Lola and 17-year-old Joaquin.
"I'm an incredibly slow learner, so I feel like I'm just getting it," he joked to Esquire. "Like, 'Oh, this is what you're supposed to do,' or, OK, sometimes 'yes' means 'no.' After 23 years, I'm just learning that -- so, I don't think I could give anybody advice."
"I guess sometimes you see these public marriages end and you wonder, 'Really? You're going to quit now? It's just been a couple of years, maybe you should try to stick it out,'" he continued. "It's kind of great to have a life together with someone. Of course, I'm not supporting staying in a horrible marriage. I'm just saying, if you can, maybe wait until it calms down a little bit. Wait until the magic happens."
The two also recently opened up maintaining a healthy sex life after more than two decades of marriage when they joined SiriusXM Radio Andy's Bruce Bozzi for a special, Quarantined With Bruce.
Clearly, the two still find one another incredibly attractive.
"I think we found each other at the right time in our lives," Ripa said. "We were really young -- not that that's the right time in somebody's life, but we were really pliable. We were pliable to each other."
"We learned each other well," she continued. "With that comes a certain level of comfort and confidence and experimentation. We had fun."
Meanwhile, Consuelos added, "You check off all the boxes for me."
Watch the video below for more on Ripa and Consuelos' 1996 wedding:
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