After 29 years of marriage, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have learned a thing or two about what makes a relationship work, and now they’re paying it forward. During a recent episode of Live With Kelly and Mark, the talk show host and her husband, best known for his role on Riverdale, offered some honest advice to a young couple preparing to walk down the aisle: travel together before starting a family.
The woman asked the experienced duo for some marriage advice, and one of Kelly’s main suggestions was "not to panic”.
She told the lady: “I’ve got so much advice…don’t panic.” Mark agreed, saying: “That’s right.” Kelly then revealed how the first year of her and Mark’s marriage was their “worst”, admitting she found it “really hard” at times.
She continued: “Like, never panic. Because… I don’t know; we’re going to speak for ourselves, but the first year of marriage was the worst for us. Like, it was really hard.”
Kelly then joked: “We discovered things about each other, like, ‘Oh my god, he breathes, and it sounds irritating to me!’ Do you know what I mean?”
The audience erupted into laughter, but Kelly reassured the young couple that they will “settle into each other” even if their first year of marriage feels “insurmountable”.
She explained: “So, you have to just not panic because you’ll settle into each other. A lot of people find the first year insurmountable, and then it sort of deteriorates.”
What’s more, Mark suggested to the young pair that they make time to see other places when their marriage is in its infancy. He said: “Travel! Travel. Go places before you have a family.” Kelly agreed, adding: “Travel, yes. Before you have kids, go everywhere.”
Mark and Kelly, who have three children, Michael, 28, Lola, 23, and 22-year-old Joaquin, also both joked that the young couple in their audience should make time to read the newspaper before starting a family.
They said in unison: “And read the newspaper. Because you’ll never get to read the newspaper again.” Kelly then said: “And sleep in on the weekends.”
Mark and Kelly met in 1995 when they appeared opposite one another in the US soap opera ‘All My Children’, and they eloped and married just months later in May 1996.