NEED TO KNOW
Mark Consuelos knew Kelly Ripa was the one all along!
At the premiere of their ESPN docuseries Running with the Wolves — which details the couple’s experience as owners of Italian soccer club Campobasso FC — in New York City on July 23, Consuelos, 54, opens up to PEOPLE about their plans for the future as he and Ripa prepare to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary next year.
“I’ve been planning with this lady here since the day I met her and that’s part of the beauty, I think, of our relationship is always making plans for what comes next,” he shares. “Some are really exciting, some are a little scary, but that’s [life].”
“I think you have to choose somebody that you can dream with and I surely chose right,” he adds of Ripa, who he married in Las Vegas in 1996.
When asked if he could give any teases about their plans, he replies, “You’ll know when we do it.”
“If you get any teasers, let me know,” Ripa, 54, quips.
DISNEY/Lorenzo Bevilaqua
The couple also spoke fondly about working together — both on television and in this new venture as co-owners of a soccer club.
When asked which is tougher between hosting Live with Kelly and Mark with her husband or co-owning a soccer team together during a Q&A at the premiere, Ripa admitted that the hosting gig is “the best job I’ve ever had.”
“He makes everything so easy,” she said. “And co-owning a football club with [Mark and Matt Rizzetta] is absolutely no work for me whatsoever.”
“So, I don’t know. It’s a draw. It’s really a draw,” she continued. “I cannot overstate how non-involved I am in the day to day operations of this, and I’m so happy about it.”
“Like, watching the edits of the show, I was having anxiety attacks because I just hear the conversations. I breeze in, I breeze out,” she added. “But now knowing what was involved and what was at stake, I really did get re-traumatized by it because it’s so, there’s so much on the line.”
The pair first met in 1995 when doing a screen test for All My Children.
Consuelos went on to play Ripa’s love interest on the popular drama, and the following year, they eloped in Las Vegas.
In March, Ripa said she had a tactic that wooed Consuelos into saying “I love you” first.
“This is old-fashion of me, so don’t get triggered, don’t get upset, I don’t need you to @ me. I don’t care what you think about what I think,” she said on the March 6 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. “What I think, is that men generally, and I’m going to speak in great generalizations, love the thrill of the hunt, and I certainly was not going to pursue you.”
“I think that made me interesting to you,” she added, to which her husband said, “It did.”
Kelly Ripa/Instagram
“I do find that early on, whether it be a really serious relationship or early in the marriage, it always feels like someone loves the other person more,” he continued. “It’s like 65/35, or 67/43.”
Ripa confessed that now, she thinks she loves Consuelos “a little bit more,” but insisted, “That’s okay. I’m fine with that. You don’t seem to know that, so it’s good. It’s all working.”
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Running with the Wolves premieres Tuesday, July 29 on ESPN and ESPN+.
