Kelly Ripa serves up an energizing blend of morning glory.
By Sondra Barr
If you think about it, anchoring an award-winning top morning talk show day in and day out for over 20 years must be exhausting. You have to look your best at all times, regardless of late nights and early mornings. Then there’s the constant small talk and off-the-cuff bon mots hosts need to strategically sprinkle throughout each telecast to keep the audience from changing the channel.
To keep up the endless a.m. shtick for two decades without it becoming staid is a skill, one that Kelly Ripa has mastered over the years. That Ripa’s on-air persona on the “Live” franchise is as fun and fresh as the first day she sidled up next to the show’s original patriarch, Regis Philbin, is a testament to Ripa’s natural comedic timing and self-depreciating humor.
Work
Only 30 years old when she auditioned for the spot vacated in 2000 by Kathie Lee Gifford, Ripa impressed Philbin instantly. In his autobiography, How I Got This Way, Philbin wrote, “Hers was a natural, quick-witted, unaffected, confident, fun-loving kind of sparkle that both Gelman [Michael Gelman, the show’s executive producer] and I remembered very well.”
What had been Live with Regis & Kathie smoothly transitioned to Regis & Kelly. Ripa, best known for her All My Children role when she was hired as Gifford’s permanent replacement, not only held her own beside the industry stalwart, she invigorated the show. During the Regis years, Ripa and Philbin effortlessly bantered about the minutia of pregnancy, raising kids, and keeping it “hot” in the bedroom.
“I feel like I have a friendship with my audience,” Ripa told writer Irina Aleksander two years after Philbin retired at age 80. “Like we know each other, not on a level of talking head and viewers, but like, ‘My kid has the flu. So does yours? Oh my God, yours does too?’”
Ripa recently told Variety that her success connecting with viewers is due to “My overall willingness to let all my foibles unfold and put all of my imperfections out there.”
“A lot of people don’t listen to the people they’re talking to,” said CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. “But Kelly, she picks up on everything, and she makes fun of herself, which, in TV, not a lot of people can do in a genuine way.”
When Philbin stepped away in 2011, Ripa didn’t miss a beat and carried the show. Eventually Philbin was replaced by former football player Michael Strahan and the show was renamed to Live with Kelly & Michael. But, one thing was clear, Ripa was the main draw. This continued to be evident even when entertainment powerhouse Ryan Seacrest became Ripa’s permanent co-host after Strahan departed in 2016.
Live with Kelly & Ryan continues to showcase Ripa’s engaging on-screen presence and proved to be a bright light in people’s lives, even during a pandemic. “A lot of people watch our show when they’re in the middle of something,” Ripa told Woman’s Day writer Kelsey Hurwitz in 2020. “So I always approach my job like somebody right now is in an emergency room somewhere and they need something light, they need something happy, they need something joyful…if you can make that person happy or smile or even chuckle for a second, then you’ve done your job.”
Family
When Live! did at-home tapings during the height of the pandemic. “People really loved it because they felt it was intimate,” Ripa told Variety. “Once in a while, I’d tilt the computer and you’d see Mark [Consuelos, her husband] sleeping in bed. It was a very exciting way of doing business.”
As for Consuelos, Ripa’s husband, the pair met on the set of All My Children. A year after the two eloped in Las Vegas in 1996, they had a son, Michael. Daughter Lola Grace and son Joaquin Antonio followed.
“I thought she was the coolest, sexiest chick, Consuelos told Aleksander. “She smoked back then, and obviously I don’t think smoking is cool now, but when you’re 24…she was a really, really, sexy smoker.”
Never shy about her love for Consuelos, Ripa frequently takes to Instagram to share shirtless photos of her husband and she isn’t shy about talking about their sex life. When asked how often she and her husband get it on by pal Andy Cohen on his late-night show Watch What Happens Live, Ripa admitted they have “lots of sex.”
“I fundamentally believe that the more you do it, the more you do it, the less you do it, the less you do it,” she explained. “We just like each other a lot. I love my husband. I think he’s awesome. We’ve been together a really long time. We try to do spicy things together all the time.”
The 50-year-old Ripa has even gotten on the sexy selfie wagon, divulging an instance when she sent Consuelos a sexy photo. “I sent him a cute, adorable butt selfie in my underpants. It’s the only time I’ve ever sent a semi-note anything, ever!” Turns out, she accidentally sent it to her family members who responded to her via an email saying, “Dear Kelly, we are so proud of all your hard work. Your exercise classes are really paying off.”
There she goes, being relatable again and sharing personal anecdotes.
Health
Of course, the topic of her preternaturally toned body and ageless visage is one she’s quick to point out is hard earned. Since 2015, Ripa has followed an alkaline diet that focuses on eating foods that are low in acid. “I believe inflammation is one of the great killers of people, in different ways. Whether it’s digestive problems, or heart health, or brain inflammation. Inflammation really affects your body in totality, so I try to maintain a really alkaline diet,” she told Women’s Health.
In addition to daily workouts, SoulCycle classes, and sweat sessions with her personal trainer, Ripa also takes anti-inflammatory supplements, including omega-3 fish oil, black cumin seed oil, and turmeric. A CBD supplement for better sleep is also one of Ripa’s go-tos. “I’ve read about CBD, but I never really dialed into it, I thought it was nonsense, and it really does aide in helping you sleep,” she told People. I can attest, because sleep was so elusive for me for so many years, partly because I work out a lot, so I have a lot of energy, and partly because I’m a morning show host.”
If the past 20-plus years are any indication, Ripa will be a morning show host for the next two decades.
