Kelly Ripa’s highly anticipated return to “LIVE! With Kelly and Michael” on April 26 didn’t only reveal her personal views on the drama that surrounded her absence, but also her whereabouts during that elapsed time—a vacation with husband, Mark Consuelos.
Reports suggesting Ripa and her husband were headed on vacation to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary—after Strahan revealed he will leave “LIVE!” for Good Morning America in September—were confirmed by Ripa on today’s airing.
“This is the strange timing about all of this, but we [Ripa and Consuelos] had a trip planned,” said Ripa. “People think we’re making all of that up—we had a trip planned for a long time—my husband and I—to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.”
Ripa then shared a photo snap of the couple on vacation.
“That’s my wedding dress. And guess what? It still fits!” Ripa told viewers. “The dress is 25 years old. My marriage is 20 years old. I didn’t buy it as a wedding dress. I just bought it because it was really pretty, and I wanted to buy something from the Barneys Warehouse sale. I was working on the soap. I didn’t make a lot of money. It was $199 on final clearance sale. ‘Do I eat this week, or do I get this dress?’ Literally, this was the thought process.”
She added: “I said to myself, ‘I bet if I buy this maybe it will be an investment piece. Maybe I will wear it more than once.’ I swear to you I wear it constantly. It’s a beach cover up now. I wear it all the time. It was the best $199 I ever spent in my life.”
The pair met while on the set of ABC soap opera “All My Children,” subsequently eloping in May of 1996. The couple went on vacation with another couple who were celebrating their own one year wedding anniversary.
