Kelly Ripa admitted that she once hoped to have more children, but her husband, Mark Consuelos, was not on board with the idea. During the December 2 episode of LIVE, the co-hosts discussed how many kids they both wanted after reading a headline about a Canadian mother who tried for a girl but instead became pregnant with triplet boys.
"So listen to this," began Kelly. "A mom of three boys tries for the girl – we know people that have done this – and she got pregnant with triplet boys."
"I wish we could zoom in on the husband’s expression. Oh man. Oh my gosh," replied Mark. "What a blessing," he added of the family of eight. "I love that," shared Kelly.
Mark then shared an insight into the couple's own parenting plans. "You would have been happy with six kids," he said to his wife. "Oh yeah, very happy with six kids," replied Kelly. "You cut me off. I felt robbed."
The couple tied the knot in 1996, when they eloped in Las Vegas a year after meeting on the set of the soap opera All My Children. They went on to welcome kids Michael, 28, Lola, 24, and Joaquin, 22 together.
However, Kelly admitted that, in hindsight, stopping at three kids may have been the right decision. "Now that they’re grown, I’m like, yeah, this is nice," she shared. "Because we would still be in it. If I had gotten my way, we’d still be going through college tours, all of that. We’d be driving ourselves crazy. Now it’s nice — but at the time…"
"Access denied," added Mark.
Christmas confession
Mark and Kelly's parenting revelation comes after they share a glimpse into their pending family Christmas during an episode of LIVE in November. The couple joked that this year for Christmas, they should just give people the "gift of us".
"Kids are old now, I'm not getting them anything," admitted Mark. "You're not getting them anything?" asked Kelly. "They get money," the Riverdale star continued, adding: "Give them a check or something and say, 'Merry Christmas.'"
"I don't know. That sounds bad…That sounds really bad," responded Kelly.
Parenting style
"They're fantastic," Michael Gelman, executive producer of LIVE with Kelly and Mark, told HELLO! about the couple's parenting skills on September 30. "I've known them for over a quarter century," he shared. "Kelly has been working with me that long directly. I knew them before when they were just on the soaps, and Mark has cohosted about 100 times over the years, but now he's the permanent guy, so it's wonderful to have the LIVE family grow even more with a real married couple as part of the everyday show."
Mark joined LIVE officially in 2023 following Ryan's departure. Ryan left the show due to the demands of traveling back and forth between his home in Los Angeles and the studio in New York, as well as his desire to focus on other projects.