Photo Credit: Getty Images
An era is ending for Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa. After closing their Upper West Side studio in New York City, where the show was taped for 37 years with former hosts like Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, the co-hosts of Live With Kelly and Mark are relocating their setup to a studio in lower Manhattan at Disney corporate headquarters.
Even though it is a step closer to centralizing Disney-owned productions—The View and The Tamron Hall Show already film there, and Good Morning America will move there by the end of the year—Mark and Kelly are a little emotional about the studio switch because their children, Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 22, also built their lives there.
Mark stated, "Our children grew up here," in an interview with Peoplein on April 1. "They'd come visit Mom here a lot—they were always backstage, even when they were babies."
In addition, Kelly, who has co-hosted the program since 2001 alongside Regis, Michael Strahan, and Ryan Seacrest, has fond memories of her kids in their home away from home.
"They came to work with me every day until they went to school," she said. "They would go to All My Children with me; they would come here with me... we meant when we said they grew up in this building, in these four walls."
In addition to the fact that many of their "closest friends" work at the studio, Mark and Kelly, who have been co-hosting since 2023, have another reason to value the studio: it helped them get married.
The former All My Children co-stars had a brief breakup prior to their 1996 wedding, but they were reunited a few days later for a required work function.
"We had to be here," said Mark. "We both tried to get out of it, but we both ended up being here on this stage."
"Obviously, when I saw her, I thought, 'This is the worst decision of my life,'" he continued. I must spend my entire life with her. The following day, we took a plane to Vegas after I proposed to her.
Kelly echoed her husband's sentiment, saying, "Isn't that crazy? We therefore owe this place a great deal. Additionally, it will be challenging to duplicate.
