Kelly Ripa Tells ‘Live’ Audience Members Not to Yell at Her Over Confession About Her Kids

Kelly Ripa doesn’t want any criticism for a confession she made about her and Mark Consuelos’ kids on Live With Kelly and Mark.

“They were not taught cursive, they were not taught script in school,” the actress, 54, said during the Monday, January 13, episode of her and her husband’s talk show. “I know, look, don’t yell at me. I sent them to school.”

Kelly and Mark, 53, share kids Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 21. The All My Children alum lamented that her children went to a school where they learned things differently than when she was a kid.

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“I sent them to school where they were not taught that,” Kelly continued. “They weren’t even learning on paper, it was wild.”

The mom of three joked that parents had to come to the school along with their children to learn the same math so that they could be on the same page and help their kids out with questions later.

“They brought all the parents in and they were like, ‘You’re doing it wrong,’” she said with a laugh. “We had to learn side-by-side math.”

Mark chimed in, “They didn’t carry the one!”

Kelly and Mark tied the knot in May 1996 and welcomed Michael just over one year later, in June 1997. Lola entered the world in June 2001, followed by Joaquin, who was born in February 2003.

The couple became empty nesters when Joaquin started college at the University of Michigan in 2021. Michael has lived on his own in New York City since he graduated from NYU in May 2020. Lola also started attending the school in 2019.

“So far we are crushing this empty nest thing,” Kelly captioned a photo of her and Mark snuggling on their couch in August 2021.

Before their youngest child went off to college, Kelly joked about how she and Mark were planning to combat empty nest syndrome.

“We’re going to be totally naked,” she told People in February 2020. “At all times. We are going to change the locks. People are like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna miss the kids.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I wanna experiment with it. See how that goes.’”

Kelly and Mark have also gotten candid about the negative effects of being empty nesters. In October 2024, the spouses discussed “gray divorces” — when people get divorced in their 50s or older — on Live With Kelly and Mark.

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“They say empty nest syndrome can contribute to that,” Kelly said, with Mark agreeing that it’s a “real thing.”

“Relationships are so built upon the children that once the children leave, the couple find they no longer have anything in common,” the Hope & Faith star added, although she reassured fans that she and her husband “still have a lot in common.”

Kelly revealed that Mark got “very defensive” when she first told him about gray divorces. She recalled him asking, “’Why are you reading that article?’”

“Well, you came home from the trip, and you’re like, ‘I read this amazing article.’ I go, ‘Tell me about it,’” Mark replied, to which Kelly said, “I didn’t say ‘amazing,’ I said ‘fascinating.’ Fascinating article.”