All My Children lovebirds Mark Consuelos (ex-Mateo Santos) and Kelly Ripa (ex-Hayley Santos) seem to have the perfect marriage. But it was actually a bit of imperfection that resulted in the on-screen/off-screen pair tying the knot.
The couple eloped in Las Vegas back in 1996, but their relationship was hanging by a thread just 24 hours before they said their "I do's." Consuelos appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen this week and answered a fan question about whether he and his wife of 22 years were broken up the week before their wedding. He clarified that they had called their relationship quits literally one day before.
"We both had to meet and do an appearance on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee. We were pushing furniture for a 'Queen for the Day' Mother's Day special, and when we were together, she wouldn't talk to me, and that made me go crazy!" he explained of why they split up, adding that it wasn't long before they reconciled. "I followed her in Central Park, then we went back to my place, and we got married the next day."
Despite the hiccup, Consuelos says he knew Ripa was the one "pretty early on." He shared that they "would go out with groups of people from work, and slowly, each date would go that the groups started getting smaller and smaller until it was just us two. I was shy, I wasn't very aggressive that way."
Ripa also made reference to her breakup with Consuelos on a recent podcast appearance. ""Right before we got married, we broke up," she revealed. "We broke up and we got back together the day before we went off and eloped."
The couple now shares three children together: sons Michael, 21, and Joaquin, 15, and daughter Lola, 17. And they recently shared the screen together again, as well; as Soap Central previously reported, Ripa made a guest-starring appearance opposite her real-life hubby on his series Riverdale.
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