Kelly Ripa is one of the hardest working women in show business and has built a multimillion dollar empire to be proud of.
But at the start of her career she faced a financial situation which she still struggles to let go.
Kelly met her husband Mark Consuelos while working on All My Children in the 90s and while they quickly fell in love, there was an aspect of him joining the show that irked her.
© Getty ImagesAll My Children
Years later, Kelly opened up about the issue and explained what happened.
© Getty"I watched my husband who had no acting experience when he got his job at All My Children, much the same way I had no acting experience," she told Bustle. "But I got my job in 1990, and I think he got his job in ’95. And he was paid more than me immediately. It was immediate."
Kelly was outraged at the injustice and added: "I just couldn’t believe how quickly they were willing to pay the man more than the woman."
Outraged
Despite now being worth a staggering $120 million, Kelly can't get over it. "It's bothered me ever since," she added. "I've earned everything I've had over the course of 30 years of working for the same company, whereas I think that men still don't have an understanding of how hard women have to work to have the opportunity to say this statement that I'm saying right now.
"And that will no doubt get blowback. People will say, 'Oh, but she earns such a good living.' Yeah, I do, because I really worked hard for it."
© GettyKelly also runs production company, Milojo, her Let's Talk of Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast and is a best-selling author.
But despite her success, she didn't get into acting and hosting because she loves being on camera.
Driven by money
© Getty Images"The reason I got into acting was because it was the job that would pay me," she admitted. "I never really fancied being on camera. I still don't. But that's the way I've found has been the easiest way for me to earn a living, which facilitates other things that I like doing."
She added: "I like creating projects in entertainment, but I don't necessarily want to star in them if that makes sense."
Kelly and Mark have passed down their hard-working ethics to their children, Joaquin, Lola and Michael.
Their youngest is in his final year at the University of Michigan, Lola is a budding musician who splits her time between NYC and London, and Michael lives in Brooklyn and is carving out a career in TV and film production.
