Susan Lucci was there when Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos first met — and it was steamy!
Speaking in front of an audience for Susan Lucci in conversation with Andy Cohen: All My Children at 55 at 92NY in New York City on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the 78-year-old actress, who played Erica Kane on the ABC daytime soap, shared fond — and juicy — memories of her former co-stars.
“I just have to say something about Mark and Kelly,” Lucci interrupted to tell host Cohen during the event.
Susan Lucci and Andy Cohen — January 14, 2025
Stephanie Augello/Getty
“I was happy to be in the hair and makeup room watching their audition scenes, and we were all like, ‘Oh, get a room!’ “, she said of the real-life couple who portrayed the roles of lovers Hayley Vaughan and Mateo Santos.
The audition she was talking about happened in 1995.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ All My Children Throwback photos
Lucci added, “The chemistry between the two of you was coming through the screen.”
After their secret eloping in 1996, the characters played by Ripa, 54, and Consuelos, 53, also tied the knot on camera during a wedding on the show in 2000.
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Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa — All My Children, November 1996.
Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment via Getty
He later said they kept their impromptu Las Vegas wedding a secret because “people think there’s going to be trouble when you’re dating your costar.”
Since leaving the soap in 2002, the pair — who still work together as hosts Live! with Kelly and Mark — became the parents of sons Michael and Joaquin and daughter Lola.
The cast All My Children: Where are they now?
During All My Children at the 55 event, casting director Judy Blye Wilson said it wasn’t easy to convince executives that Consuelos was perfect for the role of Mateo.
“They couldn’t make a decision about Mark and I was so behind him and I brought Kelly into my office, I showed her a black and white picture of him and his headshot, and she really he liked her really,” Wilson recalled.
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Live! with Kelly and Mark.
John Argueta/ABC
“And I don’t know why they delayed it, but they actually cast him, so he started playing the part, and I had to keep looking for another person. Therefore, we screen-tested Mark several times,” she continued. “I finally begged the producer and she relented, and it turned out to be the best, one of the best roles I’ve ever done.”
And Ripa would agree.
In a 2019 interview with Bruce Bozzi on his SiriusXM radio show, the soap alum said she knew Consuelos was “the one” as soon as she saw the image of the future Riverdale actor.
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“They’ve been looking for this character for a while. They’ve been looking for a really Latino actor,” Ripa said. “And so I auditioned for all the Latino actors in town and around, and then in California. And then all of a sudden, Judy Blye Wilson, who was the casting director All My Childrenhe said, ‘I found it.'”
Besides Lucci, Cohen and Wilson, All My Children in 55 also includes Jill Larson (Opal Cortlandt), Eden Riegel (Bianca Montgomery), Jennifer Bassey (Marian Colby), Francesca James (Kitty Shea and Kelly Cole) as well as former screenwriter Lorraine Broderick.
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Source: HIS Education