We simply can’t picture Live without Kelly. Is Kelly Ripa leaving Live with Kelly and Mark and is she retiring with her husband? Plus, learn what her exit could mean for the upcoming All My Children reboot on ABC.
Live with Kelly and Mark (also known as Live) is ABC’s morning talk show hosted by All My Children alums and husband-and-wife duo Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. Ripa has been a mainstay on Live since she replaced Kathie Lee Gifford in 2001. Before Consuelos, Ripa previously co-hosted the show with Regis Philbin, Michael Strahan and Ryan Seacrest.
Ripa is perhaps best known for playing Hayley Vaughan in ABC’s All My Children from 1990 to 2002, which is how she met her now-husband. Consuelos played her character’s love interest, Mateo Santos, on All My Children from 1995 to 2002. Both also appeared in multiple episodes in 2010 for the show’s 40th anniversary. Ripa and Consuelos tied the knot in 1996 and have three children together: Michael (age 26), Lola (age 21) and Joaquin (age 20).
Consuelos officially took over co-hosting duties on Live in April 2017. Although he previously served as a Live guest co-host alongside his wife, it was just for a week or so at a time. Working full-time together is different – and the married couple checked in with Entertainment Tonight in June 2023 about how they were liking it so far.
“You know, I think we’ve done it pretty well… I’m having so much fun meeting the actors or the performers that come on that I’ve always been a big fan of,” Consuelos said, “and I get to work with someone who’s the best in the business.” Ripa agreed and added: “The benefit of having worked together before is that we really know how to click in and out of those roles.”
So, is Kelly Ripa leaving Live anytime soon? In a new interview, the beloved co-host touched on the topic of retirement. See exactly what she said, below.
Is Kelly Ripa leaving Live with Kelly and Mark?
Is Kelly Ripa leaving Live? Ripa told The Purist that while she talks about retirement with “great interest,” she is “very happy” working alongside her husband on Live.
“I think the risk-averse quality I have is probably the reason I stayed with the same job for so long,” she told the site in August 2023. “Other offers come along, but I like to stick with what I know. I am very steadfast in everything I do, and so when you have me, you have me for life. Having said that, I don’t intend to work at this job for the rest of my life. I do talk about retirement with great interest, but right now I’m very happy, especially working with Mark.”
In the interview, Ripa further stated how much she loves her husband and gushed about their successful working relationship. “We met almost 30 years ago working together, and we always had a great working relationship. I love Mark more than I can articulate. He’s a proper person. He’s just a gentleman. He knows who he is. He is confident and kind and unassuming and very humble,” she said. “We build each other up, and we always have. We are fiercely loyal and extraordinarily protective, and yet we keep each other laughing, at home and at work.”
When Ripa eventually does leave Live, what will she do next? There’s a good chance that she’ll return to her soap roots. As of last year, Ripa and Consuelos were working to get All My Children rebooted as a primetime series that would take its title from the soap’s iconic setting, Pine Valley. The primetime version was in development with ABC back in 2020, Variety reported, with Ripa and Consuelos set to executive produce under their company, Milojo Productions.
But the last we heard from Ripa was that the spinoff was still “in the queue,” as of 2022. “I don’t even know where that is in the queue. Hopefully, it comes back and hopefully sooner rather than later because, for me, that’s really, you know, that, to me, is the thing that I care about the most because All My Children is responsible for every good thing that happened to me in my life,” the Live co-host told ABC 7. If Ripa leaves Live, it could be a great opportunity for the former actress to really dive into the primetime version. Unfortunately, we anticipate that the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood could be impacting the production timeline as well.
