It was love at first sight whenKelly Ripafirst laid eyes onMark Consuelos.
This year, the couple celebrated22 years of marriage, but Ripa still remembers the moment she first saw her husband.
“I saw my husband in a photograph before I saw him,” Ripa, 47, told Bruce Bozzi for his SiriusXMRadio Andyshow “Lunch with Bruce” on Tuesday. “I knew when I saw his photograph.”
The couple met when Ripa auditioned Consuelos, 47, for his role as Mateo Santos on soap operaAll My Children, on which she starred as Hayley Vaughan.
“They had been looking for this character for some time. They were looking really for a Latino actor, not an actor that was like — they didn’t want like a dark-haired guy. They wanted a Latino actor,” said Ripa. “And so I had auditioned every Latino actor in the city and around the city and then California. And then all of a sudden, Judy Blye Wilson, who was the casting director atAll My Children, said, ‘I found him.’ ”
At the time, Consuelos had just graduated college and was a “green” actor who hadn’t done much work.
When Ripa gazed at Consuelos’ photograph, she saw her “entire future with him flash before” her eyes.
“When I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before — like I saw it,” said Ripa. “And I don’t believe in any of that and now I do because of that moment.”
More than two decades later, the couple shares three children — sons Michael, 21, and Joaquin, 15, and daughter Lola, 17 — together and their marriage is stronger than ever.
Reflecting on their meet-cute,Consuelos told HuffPost Liveof Ripa, “I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff, but I was very focused — I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t really focused on that.”
The chemistry was so apparent, Consuelos was offered the gig much to the delight of Ripa.
“I was drawn to Mark because he was positively an alpha male, and I didn’t think I would be drawn to that. But I just worship him,”theLive with Kelly and Ryanco-host toldELLEin 2013.
source: people.com
