Kelly Ripa Shares Adorable Throwback Pic With Mark Consuelos From ‘All My Children’ Set in 1998

• Kelly Ripa shared an adorable throwback photo from the set of All My Children featuring Mark Consuelos.

• The photo was taken two years after they married and four years after they met.

• They’re clearly in love in the photo and are just as infatuated with each other today.

Many actors shy away from dating their co-stars to avoid potential workplace drama. But for Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, that rule went out the window as soon as they laid eyes on each other on the set of All My Children in 1994.

In fact, Ripa knew Consuelos was “the one” before that, when the show’s casting director showed her his headshot. He was scouted to play Mateo, her character Hayley’s love interest. “I was not a hopeless romantic. I never thought about getting married, it never occurred to me that I would grow old with someone,” she recalled in 2018 on Bruce Bozzi’s SiriusXM radio show, per People. “[But] when I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before—like I saw it. And I [didn’t] believe in any of that and now I do because of that moment.”

Now, 27 years later, the pair are inseparable parents to three kids—Michael, Lola, and Joaquin Consuelos—and they can’t help but experience overwhelming feelings of nostalgia and gratitude when they look back at where their love began. On Monday, Ripa shared a candid snap from an All My Children episode, and simply captioned the post: “Hayley ♥️’s Mateo #amc #mcm 1998.”

Fans and followers adored the throwback moment. “The Golden Age of AMC,” one person commented. “You two!! ❤️❤️❤️,” another added. “Such joy!!” someone else wrote.

When the photo was taken, Ripa and Consuelos had already been married for two years. They eloped in Las Vegas in 1996, and by the time they left the show in 2002, they had welcomed their first two children—as Ripa’s post makes clear, they wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“We just understood each other really well," the Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host told Soap Opera Digest in 1996. “If two people were ever supposed to be together, I’d say it was us.”

It’s safe to say they owe a lot to All My Children for bringing them together, which is why the pair are reportedly co-executive producing a spinoff called Pine Valley (the fictional town where the original series takes place). Unfortunately, the pandemic delayed production and progress updates are finite, but Susan Lucci, who also starred in All My Children and will be involved in the reboot recently told People that “there has been movement.”

“It’s really interesting, and the concept is so good,” she continued. “[It’s] in the right hands ... [with] Kelly Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, who are both so terrific. They would be executive producers, so I’m really hoping that this is going to actually go forward.”

Fingers crossed that we’ll have the privilege of seeing Hayley and Mateo together on-screen again. But until then, this adorable throwback pic will just have to hold us over.

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