Kelly Ripa came to the defence of her home state, New Jersey, during Tuesday’s episode of LIVE with Kelly & Mark following a heated debate with her husband, Mark Consuelos. The discussion arose when Mark recalled the couple’s move to New Jersey early in their relationship – and the argument that came with it. "I remembered how weird it was that you could not make a left anywhere," he said during the show. "Yeah, but it sort of impacts the way you move through the world," replied Kelly. "I move through the world never going left."
To improve safety on busy roads, New Jersey employs jughandles for making left turns. Mark then admitted that his now-wife "definitely had it" with him on the trip when he was "complaining so much about New Jersey" and the state's "rules". "I think I used the word 'communist,'" he said. "I said something crazy, and then we pulled into a gas station and I couldn't pump my own gas. And that's when I made a comment and you lost it."
"I did, yes," agreed Kelly. Mark then recalled how Kelly had responded with, "'Why don't you go back to Tampa?'" The talk show host then explained her frustration over her husband's comments on her home state. "Yeah, if Tampa's so great, go back there. Pump your own gas," she said of where Mark grew up. "He was complaining that somebody pumped the gas for him! I said, 'Most people say thank you!'"
"It just seems un-American," replied Mark. "I want to pump my own gas." New Jersey remains the only state in the nation that prohibits customers from pumping their own gas. Kelly then argued that people often don’t know which side of the car the gas tank is on, but Mark confidently insisted that he always does because "you look at the gas gauge and it says this way or that way".
Kelly shared that you "never organically know" which side the gas will be on before her husband asked her if she even knows where the gas gauge is located. "No, because I'm from New Jersey. They do it for me!" she replied. The couple now reside in a $27 million townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Kelly and Mark purchased the sprawling abode 12 years ago and transformed it into a modern living space with notes of French and Old Hollywood glamor inspired by the film Mommie Dearest. Kelly and Mark share three children – Michael, 28, Lola, 24, and Joaquin, 22.