Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa are enjoying being empty nesters.

On the Thursday, Feb. 28 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Live with Kelly and Mark hosts spoke with late night host Jimmy Kimmel, 57, opening up about life with their three now-adult children, Joaquin, 22, Lola, 23, and Michael, 27, out of the house, with Consuelos, 53, revealing the one thing he does as an empty nester.

“[Their rooms are] pretty much preciously how they left them, but I’ve been going around and using their bathrooms,” he admitted to Kimmel. When the host asked why he was using his kids’ bathrooms, he responded, “Because we paid for the house and I’ve never sat there, so I wanted to sit there.”

After his explanation, Ripa jokingly added, “And, I, for one, am thankful.”

“It’s scary, thrilling, liberating, shocking… and quiet,” she told PEOPLE. “I didn’t know how to make dinner proportionally. Now, it’s 10 p.m. and we’ll eat.”

“There were moments when I was like, ‘We’re going to be that couple: Our third child goes to college and we get divorced because this is it,” she said, laughing. “But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette. These other parents were running around us with small kids. I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn’t run into the water when I wasn’t looking.”

In other instances, Ripa saw that she and Consuelos could get back to enjoying alone time.

“So I think for us, it was ‘Oh, this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great,'” she shared.

Ripa and Consuelos are one of the longest-standing couples in Hollywood, tying the knot in May 1996, one year after meeting on the soap opera All My Children. For PEOPLE’s inaugural Family Issue in 2020, the couple opened up about their parenting skills.

“As you get older and you learn more, that youngest kid hopefully benefits from a little bit more wisdom … and hopefully fewer nerves,” Ripa said. “I think I had definitive ideas about raising girls versus raising boys, even though I don’t really believe in gender stereotyping. My sons are just as sensitive as my daughter, and my daughter is as strong as my sons.”

The two aren’t afraid to poke a little fun at their family either. On an episode of Live with Kelly and Mark in July 2024, the two spoke about which of their kids they think is the funniest, with both agreeing that their son Joaquin is the least funny.

“I think the two of you are so similar,” Ripa said. “You are basically the mirror images of each other, you know.”

“And that’s why I’m judging his humor harshly,” Consuelos added.