Kelly Ripa says ‘dating is out of the question’ if Mark Consuelos divorces her

Kelly Ripa is prepared to remain a single lady if Mark Consuelos ever breaks up with her, the daytime TV icon said Wednesday morning.

The long-running celebrity couple and Live With Kelly and Mark cohosts began their latest episode by discussing a topic, as Ripa cited from an unspecified article, things that repel men from single women.

“Let’s say if you and I broke up, and this is an article about what not to do if you want to attract a man, but here’s what I’m saying,” Ripa explained at the top of the chat. “I’m doing all of these things to be repellent to a man!”

Refocusing her original point, Ripa continued with a hypothetical scenario that involved the couple, who’ve been married since 1996, potentially breaking up.

“Let’s just say you were to leave me. I can say with 100 percent certainty that dating is out of the question,” Ripa said. “I’ve had three kids, there’s too much to explain.”

She then said that intimacy is something else she wouldn’t want to explore with another potential partner after Consuelos.

“I’m not ever getting naked again — and I resent having to get naked in front of you sometimes,” she joked. “I’m like, no, no, no, light out, you can wait until dark. Also, turn off that light, and also turn off your cell phone light. I want it pitch-black in here. And no unexpected touching!”

Despite Ripa’s joke, the couple shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

After all, the Live set has long become a breeding ground for displays of both affection and spicy energy between the pair, ranging from a 2024 episode that highlighted the couple’s return to the Las Vegas chapel where they were married nearly three decades ago, to Ripa and Consuelos trading on-air foot massages.

Earlier in 2024, Ripa revealed that she and her husband attempted to hide their wedding from their All My Children soap opera costars until Wendy Williams outed their relationship on the radio.

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“We’d eloped. It’d been a few months at that point — we’d been married for three months. Nobody at [All My Children] knew we were even dating, much less married to each other,” Ripa said. “We’re brushing our teeth and we’ve got Wendy Williams’ radio show on. We’re listening, and she’s like, ‘I’ve got celebrity dish.’ The celebrities, I guess they had a broad use of the term back then, was the fact that two soap stars from All My Children, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos,… eloped in Las Vegas. There was this eyewitness that worked in the Clark County courthouse that said we eloped, and the news broke, and we had to tell everybody we were married.”

Live With Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication. Check your local listings for showtimes in your area.