Susan Lucci knew that Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos were endgame after watching their All My Children audition three decades ago.
“I just have to say something about Mark and Kelly,” Lucci, 78, said during Susan Lucci in Conversation with Andy Cohen: All My Children at 55 in New York City on Tuesday, January 14. “I was happy to be in the hair and makeup room watching their audition scenes, and we were all like, ‘Oh, get a room!’”
Ripa, 54, joined Lucci — and other former All My Children costars — for the appearance on Tuesday.
“The chemistry between you two was coming right through the screen,” Lucci told Ripa.
The future talk show host made her soap opera debut as Hayley Vaughan in 1990. Consuelos, 53, auditioned for the show in 1995 and was cast as Mateo Santos that same year. After meeting on set, the pair tied the knot in 1996 and said goodbye to their All My Children roles in 2002. (Both Ripa and Consuelos briefly returned to the soap opera in 2010.)
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Despite their real-life chemistry, All My Children casting director Judy Blye Wilson told Andy Cohen on Tuesday that it was a hurdle getting Consuelos cast on the show.
“They couldn’t make a decision about Mark, and I was so behind him and I brought Kelly into my office, and I showed her a black and white picture of him and his headshot, and she really liked him, really,” Wilson recalled, noting that execs were “dragging their heels” when it came to making a decision about his part.
“They actually had him play the role, so he started playing the role, and I had to continue to search for another person,” Wilson recalled. “We screen-tested Mark several times. Finally, I begged the producer, and she relinquished, and it turned out to be the best, one of the best parts I ever cast.”
Ripa and Consuelos, who share three children together — Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 21 — have continued to work together over the years. She appeared in a 2019 episode of Riverdale as Ms. Mulwray alongside Consuelos, who played Hiram Lodge from 2017 to 2023.
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The couple have also cohosted Live with Kelly and Mark every morning since 2023, and because of their openness as duo, sex is often brought up on screen.
Ripa explained during a 2020 interview that meeting Consuelos “really young” allowed them to keep a healthy relationship after all these years.
“We learned each other well, and with that comes a certain level of comfort and confidence and experimentation,” she said on SiriusXM show Quarantined With Bruce at the time. “We have fun. We enjoy [each other].”
