Mark Consuelos Has One Major Regret About His Proposal To Kelly Ripa

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos appear to be inseparable. The two met as attractive twenty-somethings on the soap opera "All My Children" back in 1995, playing love interests on the show before their on-screen chemistry turned into a real romance off-screen. The couple's proposal and wedding happened quickly. In fact, after a year of dating, the two decided on a day off from work in 1996 to fly to Las Vegas and elope.

Nearly 30 years after their impromptu engagement, Consuelos has confessed one thing he would change about his proposal. While discussing a study that found nearly half of Americans would propose differently if given the chance on their daytime talk show, "Live With Kelly and Mark," Consuelos told his wife, "I would change one thing." He shared, "One thing I would change about the whole thing is, I wish I would've called your dad." Ripa replied by saying her father "still talks about it to this day." 

The couple surmised that if they had shared their plans to elope with Ripa's father, he would've talked them out of it. But Ripa confirmed she is confident that her father is now "over it" and expressed that she does not regret the quick nuptials at all. "I stand by our whole thing," she insisted. "It stuck!"

Twenty-eight years of marriage and three children later, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have learned a lot of lessons from their life together. They have been open about the importance of communicating and listening to your partner. Perhaps the most important qualities of a marriage? Trust, according to this couple. "I don't give him a hard time about seeing his friends," Ripa said of her marriage in a conversation with Good Housekeeping. "Or for doing things independently, like taking a weekend biking trip with his racing friends. He doesn't need to take me everywhere or do everything with me. I'm very much about us having our own separate time." And even after so many years together, Ripa is still singing her husband's praises. "I think he makes me better. He makes everything in our lives better."

The pair have often shared their secrets to a successful marriage, with some of their confessions airing on the side of inappropriate. But Ripa also believes that fate and timing had a lot to do with finding happily ever after. During a 2020 appearance on "Quarantined With Bruce," Ripa recalled, "We found each other at the right time in our lives. We were really young ... We were pliable to each other. We learned each other well. And with that, comes a certain level of comfort and confidence and experimentation. We have fun."