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1.
i
1
I
WHEN
IT COMES
TO DRAMA,
KELLY
RIPA
AND
MARK
CONSUELOS
have seen their fair share. At least on the job. As millions know, when Kelly isn't ribbing
Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, she's on the set of the ABC soap opera
All My Childten, where she and Mark portray one of daytime's hottest couples,
Hayley and Mateo Santos (at press time, Mark announced he was leaving
AMC to pursue a movie career). The day Redbook visited AMC's New
York studio, Kelly and Mark were taping a scene in which they were
waiting to hear whether Hayley's mother, a recovering alcoholic, would
be a suitable liver donor for their sick child. Hey, this is a soap, after all.
Kelly and Mark have faced troubles of their own, of course. But overall
their life together has been a charmed one: a solid marriage; two happy,
healthy children (S-year-old Michael and l-year-old Lola); thriving careers;
and good looks to boot. "We've been blessed," Kelly says.
106
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We felt like we were our characters [on the show]
at one point.
MARK And rhen it jusr happened. I didn't think
we were even going to be married. The next thing
you know, we're married, and then four months
later we were pregnant. It was a crazy way to get
into a relationship.
You seem to have a wonderful life, but everyone
goes through rough times. What is the hardest
thing you two have had to face together?
I think the hardest thing was when my
sister was hit and almost killed by a drunk driver.
[In 1999, Kelly's sister was severely injured in
a car accident. She was eight months pregnant
at the time, and her injuries included a broken
back, broken legs, and a broken pelvis.]
KELLY
pIal ((.'rift
j' ('(.'(1(Kelly and her co-host.
Regis Philbin, co?:f up to
Dwayne "The Rock"
Johnson. With so ~y
hot guests, you'd
think Kelly would get
a case of the
wandering eye. Not a
chance. This girl's
faithful even in
her dreams. According
to Mark, while
sound asleep she
once mumbled,
"I'm so glad we found
each other. SO
we don't have to date
anymore."
The actors met seven
years ago, in 1995, when Mark, now 32, showed up
on the set of All My Children to audition for the role
of Mateo. Born in Zaragosa, Spain, Mark-the
youngest of three children-was
raised in Illinois
and Florida by his dad, Michael, a former diplomat,
and his mom, Camilla, a homemaker. After gradu- .
ating from the University of South Florida in Tampa
in 1994 with a degree in marketing, Mark headed
to New York to pursue an acting career.
Kelly, who's 31, had already been on AMC for
five years by that point. She was raised in Berlin,
New Jersey, with her younger sister, Linda, by her
bus-driver dad, Joe, and homemaker mom, Esther.
Kelly skipped collegeand landed the All My Children
gig when she was only 20.
Little did she know that within a few years she'd
be starring in her own real-life soap opera, running
off to Las Vegas to elope with her handsome co-star.
Tell us about the first time the
two of you met. Was it love at first sight?
KELLY I fell so hard for him so quickly. But let me
explain how I looked: I had big Coke-bottle rollers
in my hair and an enormous pimple on my chin. I
walked in, said hello, and tried to think of something
clever to say, because I didn't want him to' think I
was intimidated by the fact that he was much prettier than I was. I thought his first impression of me
was "scary, scaty Kelly."
MARK I thought she was beautiful, but I was there
to get a job. I wasn't there to make time with anybody. But I was very attracted to her.
Were you hesitant to start a romance,
because you worked together?
Believe me, I wouldn't recommend it to
anyone, but obviously it worked for us.
MARK
How long did you date before you got married?
A year. We were dating other people.
KELLY He was dating everyone.
MARK She was living with someone.
KEL.LY It was a tangled, disgusting web we wove.
MARK
108
Your sister had her baby, Sergio, and
he's doing fine. How is she?
KELLY She's so much better. She's not 100 percent
better, though, and still has a few surgeries to go.
That's probably the hardest thing: It happened more
than two years ago, and it still defines us as a family.
How did Mark help you
deal with all that was happening?
Mark is the kind of person you really want
on your team if something goes wrong. He is so
caring and so strong and so good at looking at
the big picture. My entire family, if something
bad happens or if there is a problem of some kind,
we all go to my husband. We go to him immediately for advice or for support. He's a very strong
human being.
KELLY
Did your sister's accident make both
of you look at life differently?
KELLY Yeah. We looked at my sister,who was clearly
knocking on death's door and in so much pain, and
we thought, "We complain when it rains and our
hair may not look good." It really taught us about
what's important.
These days you are both so focused
on raising your children. Mark, what is the
most difficult thing about being a dad?
I
MARK guess it's the balancing act. I take on the role
of the disciplinarian, so it's balancing that with not
being too much of one.
What do the two of you do when
you disagree on how to handle your kids?
KELLY We used to be really bad; we would disagree
with each other in front of Michael. But Lola is
seeing two different parents. With Michael it was
like, "This is divide and conquer!" He knew one of
us would take his side.
Even as a toddler he could see that?
KELLY Instantly. Kids are much smarter than we
give them credit for. He still tries to do it now:
"Well, Daddy said I could do this." Now we've
learned that you have to talk about these things
privately with your parmer.
(continued)
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When it comes to your family,
do you have rules to protect your
time together? Like no business
calls after a certain time at night?
I have that rule. There is somebody else sitting at this table [shoots
a look at Mark] who loves the
phone. I don't know if you heard it
ring during the scene. They thought
it was a hospital monitor. It was
Mark's phone. But he pretended that
it wasn't. He said, "Something over
here is beeping."
KELLY
What's the hardest part
about working so closely
with your husband?
_ n/Uf.
I'ec(. lie life' I((/.;
Kelly's first two picks
for her neN book club,
Reading with Ripa,
went to number one on
Amazon.com.
So
what attracts Kelly to
these reads? "I've
always been
a big fan of the light
read. Anything
with cleavage
on the cover, I'm
right there."
Are you going to have more kids anytime soon?
We want to have.atleast one more.
KELLY I would ideally like fow: He wanted two, and
so one night it was like, "OK, three is a nice compromise between four and two."
MARK
Kelly, will you take some time
off work the next time you're pregnant?
KEL.LY I will cut out something. I'll probably take a
hiatus from All My Children next time. I've been
there for so long, and they know they can count on
me to come in and do what needs to be done. But I
would love to have a nice long vacation with my third
baby. With a pregnancy in soaps, they either write it
in or they don't. During my first pregnancy, I gained
65 pounds and they didn't write it in. I received hate
mail saying "Why don't you go on a diet?" Just all
kinds of filth; there is only so much the ego can take.
Does that kind of nasty stuff get easier to take
the longer you are in the business?
KELLY Every year your ego gets a little stronger, and
I'm at the point in my life now where I think, "Well,
if you don't like me, I'm sorry. There's not much
I can do to help that. You either like me or you
don't." But there was a time in my life when I felt
really bad that not everyone liked me or my character. But in life that is just impossible.
110
KELLY Well, there are a couple of thmgs. We spend
24 hours a day together, and you're bound to build
up some sort of contempt for each othel: [Laughs]
But we really haven't. We get along very well. We
have an easy time spending 24 hours a day together.
But he doesn't treat me like other actors. I'm the wife,
and the others get treated like actors. So we have this
discussion sometimes when he'll be very abrupt with
me during a scene: "Be quiet, I'm trying to listen to the
director:" There isa way that he will speak to me, and
it's a way he would never speak to another actOl:
Does it bother you when Mark kisses a co-star?
KELLY I don't get jealous ever in life. It doesn't really
bother me. He was an actor when I met him. I knew
that going into it, so for me to get jealous is ridiculous. And I just think he's so damn handsome when
he kisses somebody else that I actually find it awkwardly pleasing in some strange way, because I never
get to watch him kiss me.
Mark, do you ever get jealous when you
see Kelly kissing other people on the show?
No, I'm Latin. I don't get jealous.
Wait a minute! Move out of the way, everybody! Because when the lightning bolt crashes
through the ceiling, I don't want you all to get hit.
MARK It's not natural to see some(continued)
MARK
KELLY
Jltol!rc)' !c.(!c,
HE SAID,
SHE SAID
The amazing mom-here
Are they as in sync as they
seem to be? Here'swhat
Kelly and Mark said
about each other (whenthe
other one wasn't there).
II
So you don't have a reputation
for being wild and crazy sex maniacs
on the All My Children set?
KELLY Oh, no. Most people found out we
Who is the
boss in the family?
KELLY
'\\I'en~dati~g aft~r w<:;_wer~
married.
MARK
She's the boss.
What is the best gift your
partner has given you?
KELLY
1
over money.
MARK Bull. You think that I never let you
buy anything.
KELLY You don't.
MARK Name one thing you haven't been
able to get.
- KELLY Breasts-boobs.
MARK I will buy those for you. I will go on
the record. I will buy you big shiny ones.
My children. but they're
not possessions. are they?
Wnen the kids were
bom. he got me these little
Aaron Basha baby-shoe
bracelets. He's a
very thoughtful
I
I
gift giver.
MARK
MIy two kids.
What has the most
important moment of
your lives been?
KELLY
,I
The days our kids were oom.
I
The births of our children and
I
MARK
that fateful trip to Vegas.
What was the
most romantic moment
you've shared?
KELLY
Our honeymoon. We went
to Rome and Capri.
MARK
I'd have to say lunch
in Capri the first afternoon
we were there.
What's a guilty
pleasure you share?
KELLY
Howard
Stem.
MARK
Hovvard Stem.
Who is your
Hollywood crush?
KELLY
Benjamin
Bratt.
MARK
Jennifer Ccn.'1eI~'.
Does your partner
have any annoying habits
that drive you nuts?
KELLY
Yes. he te!ls me not to
pick at my fingernails. It's all I
have left. It's my only vice!
MARK
I'm a control freak. I try to
control everything.
112
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Not that you ever argue, but if you do
argue, what do you tend to argue about?
Money, kids, time together?
MARK That's pretty much it.
KELLY All of those things. We don't argue
Mark is the boss in the family.
I'I
flanked by
Lola (right) and her Mini-Mark, Michaefdoes it all with a smile.
Are you ready to take him up
on the offer, Kelly?
body you're intimate with, your wife, making out
with some beautiful guy. If I know it's going to
happen, I don't watch.
Kelly, were you joking before when
you said you two conceived one of your
kids on the set of All My Children?
KELLY I think we did, but Mark says no.
While we're on the subject, exactly
where is the craziest place you two had sex?
KELLY AND MARK IN UNISON How much time
do you have?
So what's the answer?
KELLY Our honeymoon.
MARK Lobby of the hotel, on a clamshell sofa.
KELLY I don't know why we couldn't make it up
to the room. We went back to that hotel as an old
married couple. We tried to get a room there, and
they said, "Yes, we have a vacancy."
MARK Then they said, "What's your name?"
KELLY I said, "Consuelos." "Consuelos! No, we
have no vacancies here!" And I told Mark, "They
have cameras! They saw us doing the dirty-dirty!"
A tabloid probably bought the video.
KELLY Listen, there was only a very brief moment
of my life when I looked pretty enough to publicly
display myself.
MARK It wasn't that public, actUally.To be honest
with you, it was the second-floor lobby.
KELLY And we weren't naked. We never removed
our clothes. We were thinking about joining a circus
and turning it into a circus act,
KELLY He's lying because he's trying to
sound evolved. But yes, after my next child
I'm getting them done!
MARK We fight about everything and anything.
Please! But then we make up-and making up is
great. It's better to say "Yes, dear. You're right."
Do the two of you ever get to spend time
alone? Do you ever schedule date nights or
go away on trips without the kids?
MARK We took a trip to Montreal last weekend
without the kids.
KELLY We had never done that before.
MARK We don't like to do it. Every time we go
someplace, vacations, work even, we bring the kids.
This is the first time we set out to get away from
absolutely everybody and everything.
As a couple you've had it pretty easy
so far. You haven't had all your "scandals"
revealed by the tabloids.
KELLY We have good publicists that hide all of
that. [Laughs]
MARK One of the smartest things Kelly said when
she first got this job was, we'd be the biggest hypocrites if we were up in arms about anything the
tabloids said, because we read that sruff.
KELLY The "Would you be caught dead in this
oumt?" section of the Star is what I live for.
MARK We've got our close friends and our family,
and they know who we are. Our friends don't call
and say "Hey, I read this about you. Are you guys
having problems?"
KELLY Or "I read your marriage is falling apart!"
MARK Our friends know better.
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