Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Share the Advice They Gave Their Son Joaquin, 22, After His College Graduation (Exclusive)
The married co-hosts are also parents to son Michael, 28, and daughter Lola, 24
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos had a few words of wisdom for their youngest when he graduated college.
The famous couple spoke with PEOPLE on Wednesday, July 23 at the premiere of their new ESPN series, Running with the Wolves, which follows Ripa and Consuelos as they dive into the world of Italian fútbol as owners of Campobasso FC, a Serie C soccer club known as the “wovles.”
On the red carpet, the two talked about their son Joaquin, 22, who recently graduated from college. “Slow and steady wins the race kind of thing,” Consuelos, 54, says of the advice he gave his son.
“Also, the less we say the better, you know,” says Ripa, 54. “Kids are more reticent to take advice from their parents, so we just keep it quiet, and we’ve been lucky so far. They’ve really turned out to be fabulous adults. We’re really proud of them.”
Ripa and Consuelos are also parents to son Michael, 28, and daughter Lola, 24.
Earlier this month, the Live with Kelly and Mark co-hosts appeared on an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, where they joked that people liked watching their show because they like “watching their parents fight.”
When host Seth Meyers asked the couple, who’ve been together for nearly three decades, if any of their adult kids watch the talk show, both Ripa and Consuelos instantly replied, “No.”
“So people like to watch their parents fight, except for your children,” Meyers, 51, joked, which prompted Ripa to share the only reason Joaquin will watch their appearance on the late-night show.
“Our youngest son — our youngest is 22 — and we asked him to come here tonight ’cause he was visiting us. He lives in Michigan, and he was visiting us. And I said, ‘Do you want to come see Seth tonight?’ And he goes, he goes, ‘No, no, no, I’ll … watch it on the show when it airs,’ ” she recalled.
“And I go, ‘Oh, you’re going to watch?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I watch Seth,’ ” she continued. “So he’s like, ‘I’m not watching for you. I’m just naturally watching Seth.'”
On a July episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, Ripa explained why her children being nepo babies is not necessarily a bad thing.
She responded to the topic of nepo babies by revealing that her children graduating without student loan debt is one result of her and her husband’s wealth she finds “comfort” in. “I think my kids feel, like, very fortunate in general,” she said, noting that “they don’t have student loans.”
Ripa also shared how her children feel knowing they don’t have to carry that weight. “There’s, like, a comfort in knowing my kids got to graduate knowing that they weren’t having to climb out of a mountain of debt,” she told host Amanda Hirsch. “They are so appreciative and so grateful.”
