Kelly Ripa's Biggest Wardrobe Malfunctions Yet

Fans of "Live with Kelly and Mark" and its previous iterations have come to expect the unexpected. There's always a chance Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos will share one of their inappropriate confessions — and viewers might just witness the former grappling with a wardrobe malfunction.

Kelly Ripa has a reputation for rocking outfits that turn heads, and she's been known to unabashedly expose her secret fashion weapons. There was the time she showed off her Spanx to Anderson Cooper in one of her Fashion Finder videos, and in another, she confessed to wearing Booty Pop panties to add a little bulk to her backside. The subject of clothing mishaps can also come up when Ripa and Consuelos fill some of the air time ahead of their guest interviews with amusing personal anecdotes. During one such occasion, Ripa shared a story about how an attempt to enhance her shape went terribly wrong.

Ripa was wearing chicken cutlets beneath her bathing suit while swimming with her family, and one of the poultry-like pads popped out. Luckily, she was able to retrieve it because it was buoyant. "The kids thought it was a jellyfish. ... I'm like, 'No! Get that, that's expensive," she recalled on "Live with Kelly and Mark" in 2024. Sadly, Ripa's chicken-cutlet-of-the-sea moment wasn't captured on camera — but the following wardrobe malfunctions were.

Kelly Ripa isn't shy when it comes to discussing what she wears underneath her clothes. In a 2015 episode of "Live with Kelly and Michael," she informed her audience that she's fond of full-coverage undies. "I have several pairs of granny panties and I do enjoy wearing them," she declared (via E! News). However, the skivvies she rocked while shooting a cooking segment with "Dancing with the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba were definitely not of the geriatric variety.

In 2012, Ripa jetted off to Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii, to film "Live." Inaba was serving as her guest host when a chef gave them a crash course in whipping up some local cuisine. The trio was shooting outdoors on a blustery day, and Ripa had one hand firmly planted on the skirt of her purple dress to hold it in place. She was tasting food with her free hand while gripping her dress with her other hand to avoid flashing viewers. But unfortunately, part of her skirt blew up, revealing a pair of hot pink low-rise panties.

When Ripa appeared on "The Talk" in 2021, she and Inaba discussed the wind's mischievous behavior that day. According to Ripa, her foresightful friend warned her against going commando before they hit the beach, and it's a good thing she listened. Ripa also blamed the hot weather for her decision to wear a dress that didn't have enough heft to stay put when it was hit with a strong wind gust. "I just look at the temperature, like 'Oh it's 97 degrees I better wear this dress made out of paper mache,'" she recalled (via Hello!).

For many women, their over-the-shoulder boulder holders spare them from uncomfortable jiggling throughout the day. But during a 2023 episode of "Live with Kelly and Mark," Kelly Ripa revealed that her bras serve a different purpose: giving her somewhere convenient to clip her microphone while filming. She also informed her viewers that the bras she wears are pretty flimsy, saying, "There's nothing exotic going on in here. There's not fancy lace, there's no underwire, there's no support mechanism that one might need, say, if they had actual breasts."

While Ripa might joke about being flat-chested, her utilitarian bra still couldn't contain her bust during a 2018 episode of "Live with Kelly and Ryan." She likely wished she was wearing one made of sturdier stuff when she found herself having to readjust it in the middle of filming. As she tugged on the front of her bra, a bemused Ryan Seacrest asked the audience, "Did anyone hear a snap?" Ripa then explained why she was yanking on her errant undergarment. "Sorry, just fell out the bottom there," she said.

In what was definitely one of Kelly Ripa's most awkward moments caught on camera, Seacrest tried to give her some privacy by holding his hands up between himself and his co-host and turning his head away. However, members of the "Live" audience weren't so chivalrous; Ripa's rather aggressive battle with her bra had them in stitches. After wrestling everything back into place, she went full Sir Isaac Newton by leaving her fans with a warning about one of the famed physicist's greatest discoveries. "Women over 45: gravity wants to suck every part of you into the center of the Earth," she said. Just call it Ripa's Law of Universal Gravitation.

Kelly Ripa has worn her fair share of inappropriate outfits, and she's learned that the risk of certain looks becoming risqué rises when you sit down in them. For an October 2021 episode of "Live with Kelly and Ryan," she wore a white Reformation dress that featured a powder blue floral print, midi-length skirt, and flared puff sleeves. It had a vintage vibe and would have been a rather conservative piece — if not for the thigh-high slit over one leg.

In a video posted on the "Live" Instagram page, Ripa strutted out to greet the audience before settling into her seat. "It is let-your-leg-slit-rise-all-the-way-up [day]," she quipped while motioning at her skirt. While it flared out at the bottom, it likely rode up because it fit so snugly in the hips.

Ripa appeared to have the same dress on in 2023 when she got down on the floor to meditate for a "Live" segment. When she finished, she joked, "Now we're gonna get up in our lady dresses, and try not to flash the audience" (via The U.S. Sun). According to the talk show host, most of her wardrobe would be even more dangerous to sit down in if her daughter, Lola Consuelos, had her way. "She oddly says that my clothes should be tighter and shorter," Ripa told People in 2022. However, Consuelos might want to try some reverse psychology on her mom if she wants to see her in miniskirts and bodycon dresses. Of how she responds to her daughter's style advice, Ripa revealed, "I wind up actually making my skirts longer and blousier and bigger." At least this aesthetic decreases the likelihood of an accidental undies flash, and perhaps Consuelos views a high slit as an acceptable compromise. 

Fans got a tiny taste of what it would be like to see Kelly Ripa competing on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2023 when Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson appeared on "Live with Kelly and Mark." The "DWTS" pros taught Ripa and Mark Consuelos a few sexy dance moves, including one that required Consuelos to get down on one knee and dramatically dip Ripa back over his thigh.

Ripa was wearing a pink dress with ties on the neck and back, but feared they were no longer doing their job after executing the move. "Did my entire back of my dress rip open?" she asked Consuelos. He assured her this wasn't the case, but he showed her that one of the ties had ripped off. "It's just a breakaway dress," Ripa quipped. As she yanked on the tie, seemingly causing it to tear some more, she brushed off the damage, saying, "Who cares?" Ever the trooper, the host kept dancing with the long strip of material dangling from her back. When an impressed Johnson wanted to know why she hasn't been on "DWTS," Ripa replied, "I've got a lot going on."

Kelly Ripa has admitted to being a clothes hoarder, and apparently, she got the pink dress repaired rather than throwing it out. Two months later, she was wearing it on the show again when she informed her audience, "I had a small wardrobe emergency backstage. Very exciting. I almost did not walk out" (via Access Hollywood). The wardrobe malfunction had Mark Consuelos preparing to host "Live" alone — and he was salivating over the opportunity to take the reins from his wife. "I got drunk with power," he confessed.

In celebration of Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest's fifth anniversary as co-hosts, a compilation of funny clips was shared on the "Live" YouTube page. Obviously, a look back at their most memorable moments wouldn't be complete without one of Ripa's fashion flubs, but a lot of viewers probably would have missed her minor blouse blooper if it hadn't been for the show's executive producer, Michael Gelman.

Ripa was wearing a gray button-down with a few buttons undone. Her mic was clipped to the shirt, and the addition possibly pulled the neckline down lower to expose the tiniest bit of bra. This was still too much for Gelman, who held up a cue card with the word "bra" scribbled on it in large letters to let Ripa know that her top needed to be tugged up. But instead of fixing it, Ripa held her hands up in front of her chest and quipped, "I mean, look at these curves." She also agreed when Gelman suggested that her decision to leave so much décolletage on display was related to the steamy summer weather, saying, "August is when the girls come out to play!"

Ripa could have avoided the undergarment exposure and beat the heat by letting the girls go completely free. Of course, she would have needed to find somewhere else to clip her mic pack, and it seems she has other (somewhat graphic) reasons for wearing a bra. "What I have — and I say this with pride — are nipples that have nursed three kids and now need to be rolled up and tucked into this thing I use to hold my mic on my back," she said on "Live" in 2023.

Kelly Ripa has become a diehard boyfriend jeans convert. In a 2021 episode of "Live," she explained that this is because she put on a little weight at the start of the pandemic. "I don't need skinny jeans anymore because my boyfriend jeans now fit like skinny jeans," she joked (via People). She had also evidently discovered that Zoomers had canceled form-fitting stretch denim. "TikTok says it's inappropriate for me to wear these things," she said.

But back in 2017, Ripa was still squeezing into pants that threatened her circulation, as "True Romance" star Christian Slater learned when he guest-hosted "Live." He got to listen to Ripa recount what happened when Mark Consuelos assured her that the pair of black cigarette pants she picked out were an excellent choice before they headed out for a date night. "I go, 'Mark, are these too tight?'" she recalled. Her husband's famous last words in response were, "No, they look great on you. ... I love those pants, they look amazing." 

However, as soon as Ripa sat down in the car, the top button popped open. Because of this, she decided to risk a rumbling belly and dehydration by avoiding all food and liquids at the party she and Consuelos were headed to. Unfortunately, the front of her pants still exploded under the strain of the tight waistband at least two more times. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh. This is a nightmare,'" she recalled. On the bright side, she got a fun party trick out of her ill-fitting trousers. She showed Slater and her viewers a video of Consuelos blowing on the front of the pants to make it look like a blast of his breath was enough to make them burst.

Kelly Ripa always goes all-out for Halloween on "Live" by rocking incredible costumes inspired by notable pop culture figures. Some examples over the years include Eleven from "Stranger Things," Donald Trump, Pamela Anderson, Barbie, Billie Eilish, as well as Taylor Swift and her nemesis Kim Kardashian. But in 2017, she didn't just dress up; she fully immersed herself in her role as a handmaid-turned-housewife.

Ripa, Ryan Seacrest, and a few "Live" crew members filmed a special segment titled "The Real Handmaids of Manhattan" that imagined what "The Handmaid's Tale" might look like if the Hulu series' oppressed women engaged in some behavior that definitely wouldn't fly in Gilead — but would be embraced with open arms by Bravo. The handmaids got to keep the apples from the "The Real Housewives of New York" intro, but the juicy produce took on a whole new meaning (blessed be the fruit). Their red cloaks and white bonnets couldn't hide their "Real Housewives" attitudes, and "Ofripa," who didn't get "The Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood's naming convention quite right, embraced her inner Teresa Giudice when she got behind a table. It was definitely one of Ripa's angriest moments on "Live," but at least her fury was faked for once.

Andy Cohen made a cameo on the "Real Handmaids" reunion show and had to restrain Ofripa when she attacked Ofryan while screaming, "Do not bring up my family!" in her best imitation of Giudice's Jersey accent. Cohen lifted Ofripa in the air as he pulled her away, which exposed a bit more than her legs when she started wildly kicking them. However, a black "censored" bar was later added to the footage to keep it PG (praise be!).

One accessory that's obligatory for Kelly Ripa on "Live" is her trusty mic. Unfortunately, her fashion choices sometimes make keeping it attached to her a bit tricky. For a July 2024 episode of the show, she wore a blush dress that featured a blue floral print, mock neck, and short cape sleeves. It was an elegant and sophisticated look, but evidently, her mic did not want to stay stuck to its slick fabric.

While she and Mark Consuelos were engaging in some of their usual banter, Ripa began pinching at her midsection, which resulted in a loud rustling noise. "Oh! Look at this, look at what I found. My microphone's down here by bosom," she said. She stuck her hand down her top to dig the mic out, but her progress was a bit slow due to her dress' high neckline. She also made a crack about the mic's low location, saying, "That's where my bosom is, sir!"

In October 2023, a "Live" audience member told The U.S. Sun that Ripa experienced a similar issue when the cameras weren't rolling. The talk show host mentioned her unmentionables yet again by revealing that her microphone had come unattached from her bra. "Kelly told the audience that she only wears a bra to hold her mic because there is nothing else it supports, insinuating she has small boobs and a bra is not normally needed," the eyewitness recalled. You've got to hand it to Ripa for having the ability to extract every ounce of entertainment from her malfunctioning outfits.