
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are getting a blast from the past!
On the March 6 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, the duo were surprised with a very special visit from the fellow All My Children alum and soap opera icon, Jill Larson.
At the top of the show, Ripa, 54, confessed that she and were husband were buzzing because Larson, 77, was actually sitting in the audience.
“We’re just so excited because Jill Larson is here in our audience,” she gushed. “All My Children royalty, Jill Larson. [She] played Opal. Very excited. … We’re starstruck!”
When Consuelos asked if Larson was on before Ripa’s time on the soap, she replied, “Not way before, we overlapped” and added that he was just as “dazzling” as a young actor when he joined the show.
“Jill Larson was the person I loved to be in a long wedding scene, or funeral scene, with the most,” Ripa gushed. “Because you always were doing something interesting. You were either reading a fabulous book, or you were knitting or needlepointing. You were doing amazing things.”
After Larson joked that she took up hobbies to “pass the time” on set, Ripa reminisced on their time together and shared the two needed to see each other more often.
“Jill, we’re so happy to see you. We were just together, not too long ago, we were together at the 92NY for that All My Children anniversary discussion,” she said. “And I’ve got to tell you, spending time with you reminded me of how much I miss spending time with you.”
“So let’s try to spend more time together,” she smiled as Larson added, “Likewise!”
For Ripa and Consuelos, their roles on All My Children changed their lives in more ways than one.
The couple met on set of the series. Ripa had been playing Haley Vaughan since 1990 before Consuelos entered the cast as Mateo Santos in 1995. The couple eloped to Las Vegas and married on May 1, 1996. They went on to welcome three children: sons Michael, 27, and Joaquin, 21, and daughter Lola, 23,
During the 92NY panel discussion in January, Ripa admitted that her time on the soap opera had changed her life.
“If I may add, without Judy, I would literally have nothing,” she said, referencing producer Judy Wilson’s decision to cast Consuelos . “I would not have my husband. I would not have my children. You are responsible for every good thing that’s ever happened to us.
“And I just want to publicly say that because I’ve said it before, but without you [present],” she continued.