Kelly Ripa has revealed that she and husband Mark Consuelos have had some “ludicrous” sex rituals via FaceTime.
The 52-year-old spoke openly about her marriage of 27 years during the first episode of her podcast, Let’s Talk off Camera with Kelly Ripa, where Consuelos and their marriage counsellor, Dr Linda Carter, appeared as guests.
During the conversation, the couple recalled how they stayed connected during their time apart, as the actor was in Canada for about 10 months in 2020 for work. After Consuelos noted that there were “rituals” they did to stay connected, Ripa stepped in to share how they continued to be intimate via FaceTime.
“We had, can I tell you something, we had sexual rituals that were so ludicrous, over FaceTime,” she explained.
She then revealed another strategy, adding: “I became so alarmed at my appearance, over FaceTime, that I started rigging the computer to hang from a ladder.”
Ripa emphasised that she hung her computer so her spouse “did not have to see what gravity was actually doing” to her. She then poked fun at how she “got really close to herself” in “situations where [she] was separated from [her] husband for long periods of time”.
The Live with Kelly and Ryan host also addressed how important intimacy is in her marriage, as she asked Consuelos if it would be a “dealbreaker” if she “cut [him] off sexually”.
In response, he said: “That could be a potential deal breaker…Unless you had some type of medical condition where, like, you lost the use of [your body].”
Ripa then noted that when she was going through menopause, she didn’t necessarily want to have sex and would tell her husband to give her a break. He then joked that he “didn’t give [her] a break”, before pointing out that there had “never been months” where they weren’t intimate, unless he was “in another country”.
Consuelos clarified that if his wife randomly decided that they weren’t “having sex anymore,” he probably “would have a problem with that,” which Ripa understood.
The pair first tied the knot in 1996 and went on to welcome three children: Michael, 25; Lola, 21; and Joaquin, 20. They also noted in the podcast that they’re empty nesters, as their daughter and two sons have all moved out or are away at college.
Elsewhere in the episode, the pair continued to have a candid conversation about their love life, with Ripa recalling how Consuelos recently told Carter that he just figured out that “sex and intimacy were two different things”.
In response, he acknowledged why it took him a while to discover this. “I’m going to blame it on the fact that I travelled so much. So a lot had to happen in the time that I was home.”
He then noted that because he was only home for short periods of time, whether that was “a week” or “36 hours”, it impacted his perspective on sex.
“I wanted to get intimacy in and the sex in. So they became one and the same,” he explained, before Ripa joked: “You wanted to get it in.”
Last month, the married couple announced that they are going to become co-workers, as Consuelos will be replacing Ripa’s co-host, Ryan Seacrest, on Live with Kelly and Ryan
