The story of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos getting hitched in Sin City in 1996 after meeting on All My Children has become Live with Kelly and Mark lore since Consuelos came onboard as co-host last spring. However, it turns out that a certain fellow former talk show host was the one to break the news of their “secret wedding” to the public.
On this morning’s episode, the two rehashed their origin story ahead of returning to Vegas — or what they jokingly referred to as “the scene of the crime” — to shoot four shows next Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 26 and 27) at the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
“Two youngsters on a soap opera got married — eloped!” Ripa exclaimed, referring to herself and her husband.
She then informed the Live audience that their “secret wedding [was] discovered by none other than Wendy Williams.”
“Yes! True facts, I’m not kidding,” she said.
Consuelos chimed in, “You have to go to the Clark County Courthouse to get your marriage license, and so someone saw us there.”
Consuelos asked his wife and co-host if she remembers visiting the courthouse. While Ripa claimed that she does, Consuelos teased that he “was a little dizzy, but [he] remember[s] being there.”
“Dizzy with excitement!” he clarified.
Ripa got their chat back on track, noting that they “had eloped” and it had been “maybe three months” since when they tuned into Williams’ radio show.
“Nobody at work knew we were even dating, much less married to each other,” she explained. “We’re brushing our teeth, and we’ve got Wendy Williams’ radio show on. And we’re listening, and she’s like, ‘I’ve got celebrity dish!’ And we’re like, ‘Ooh, celebrity dish? Turn it up!’”
They then learned that the “celebrity dish” involved two rather familiar individuals.
“And the celebrities — and 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 —,” Ripa began, before Consuelos interjected, “But she called you Kelly Ripka.”
Ripa replied, “No, she did not!”
She continued the story, recalling that Williams revealed that she and Consuelos had “eloped in Las Vegas,” and that “there was this eyewitness that worked in the Clark County Courthouse that said that [they] eloped.”
“And then the news broke, and then we had to tell everybody we were married,” she added.
As for why they chose to initially hide their marriage, Ripa highlighted that they “worked together,” and they “didn’t want it to be perceived like somehow [they] couldn’t work together.”
The two conceded that it “seemed like a good idea” at the time, but ultimately agreed it had been “a harebrained idea.”
Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. Check out their website for your local listings.
