Kelly Ripa reveals Wendy Williams outed her and Mark Consuelos’ relationship
Ripa’s radio bombshell.
Kelly Ripa‘s secret wedding to Mark Consuelos in 1996 was exposed by none other than Wendy Williams.
The “All My Children” stars managed to keep their relationship a secret from their co-stars for three months before the news finally broke.
“Our secret wedding, discovered by none other than Wendy Williams. True facts, I’m not kidding,” Ripa, 53, said during “Live with Kelly and Mark” Thursday.
The morning talk show host made the admission shortly after Consuelos, 52, said they would be “returning to the scene of the crime” by filming several episodes of their show in Las Vegas.
“We’d eloped. It’d been a few months at that point, we’d been married for three months, nobody at [‘All My Children’] knew we were even dating, much less married to each other,” Ripa explained.
Williams, who was a gossip reporter at the time, was tipped off by a courthouse witness.
“We’re brushing our teeth and we’ve got Wendy Williams’ radio show on. We’re listening, and she’s like, ‘I’ve got celebrity dish,’ ” Ripa said. “The celebrities, I guess they had a broad use of the term back then, was the fact that two soap stars from ‘All My Children,’ Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos … eloped in Las Vegas.
“There was this eyewitness that worked in the Clark County courthouse that said we eloped, and the news broke, and we had to tell everybody we were married,” Ripa concluded.
The reason the couple decided to keep their relationship a secret was “because we worked together and we didn’t want it to be perceived that somehow we couldn’t work together.”
The idea to conceal the marriage “seemed like a good idea” at the time.
The “Riverdale” alum, however, admitted it was a “harebrained idea.” (The pair’s story Thursday came on the same day Williams’ “care team” confirmed the former disc jockey was diagnosed with dementia and aphasia.)
The pair met on the long-running soap opera in 1995 when Ripa played troubled party girl Hayley Vaughan, and Consuelos played the rugged Mateo Santos.
Since tying the knot, the couple have had three children and have proudly showed off their relationship via social media.
Comments about their romance and sex life only intensified when Consuelos took over Ryan Secrest’s spot on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in April after the “American Idol” host announced his departure.
During one memorable episode, the couple engaged in “partner yoga” while making several NSFW comments toward each other.
The celebrity duo was met with criticism from fans after they felt like the two were talking too much about their bedroom antics.
