Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Get Candid About His Extreme Jealousy

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have been married for more than 25 years, and the couple recently opened up and spoke candidly about the extreme jealousy that Consuelos experienced in the early years of their relationship. Entertainment Tonight shared an exclusive clip from Let’s Talk Off Camera, Ripa’s new SiriusXM podcast that debuts on Wednesday. During the conversation, the couple addressed the beginnings of their marriage and how “insanely jealous” Consuelos was prone to becoming.

“My biggest complaint about you over the course of our marriage, and this is not recent because it definitely changed… but you used to be insanely jealous and that was a hard pill to swallow,” Ripa said during the clip. “… It’s very hard being married to somebody who is jealous.” She then went on to detail an example of how Consuelos would oftentimes develop “a perception of a scenario,” which would lead him down a path of jealousy. “It was our first week of marriage, because we didn’t take our honeymoon until later. You were working and I went to visit you in Boston,” Ripa recalled. “We went to this Italian restaurant and the waiter was like a very cute old man, he’s definitely in his 70s, if not 80s. He leaned down and he said, ‘And for the principessa?’”

Consuelos recalled that he “got upset” at the time, with Ripa adding, “I thought it was so cute that this little old man called me a princess, and I looked at him and I gave him my order in a very smiley way. And he walked away and you picked a horrible fight.” Consuelos then admitted, “I remember that. Look at age 25, I was pretty insane. But that jealousy thing definitely followed me for a while. I’m not jealous anymore.”

Clarifying that he has changed quite a bit since they first began dating, Ripa told Consuelos that she is “so grateful that you’re not” the jealous type any longer. He noted the unfortunate “character flaw,” adding, “It’s ugly. As ugly as it feels to the person who has to be on the receiving end of it, it’s such an ugly feeling inside. If this is any consolation, you know you’re being crazy. The jealous person knows that this is wrong and it’s ugly, but they can’t help it.” 

Finally, the explained that he is glad he beat the jealous parts of his personality. However, he confessed that he isn’t sure he can specify any particular moment or catalyst that led to the change. “I wanted to do some work on myself,” he said, “and that was one of the major things that I needed to work on because it was getting in the way.”