Kelly Ripa Breaks Down in Tears With Husband Mark Consuelos After Beloved Family Dog Dies

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are mourning the death of their beloved dog Chewie. The couple shared the devastating news on the Wednesday, Feb. 5 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, with Ripa breaking down as they revealed they had to put Chewie down the day before at the age of 17 due to a decline in her health.

“We had a rough day yesterday. We had to say goodbye to Chewie yesterday,” Consuelos said, revealing that his family’s Shih Tzu had “stopped eating for a couple of days” after “eating less and less for the past few weeks.” He continued, “She was extremely dehydrated and had some neurological stuff going down. And you think, ‘Okay, I’m doing the right thing, this is going to be not easy but…’ It’s probably one of the toughest things we’ve had to do as a married couple.”

“I know pet owners at home can understand this,” the Riverdale alum added. “It takes a pet owner to understand this kind of loss. It’s grief. It really is grief. But knowing that we did the right thing because it was just going to be really, really, really bad over the next few days for her.”

Ripa first met Chewie during a pet adoption segment on Live, and as Consuelos recounted how much the pup had been through with his family, a crying Ripa buried her head in her hands.

“I’m really sorry. I thought I got it all out, guys. I really thought I got it all out and I apologize because this is not how I wanted this to go down,” she said through tears. Praising her “steadfast companion” for all the years of love, Ripa expressed her gratitude for Chewie.

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“We’ve been so lucky. We’re very fortunate people in our lives; we’ve not had loss in our lives, a tremendous loss like this. We still have all of our parents. We’re so fortunate,” Ripa said. “I feel very bad crying in front of you when people have — there are much bigger problems in the world, and I understand that. But you have to understand that this dog was so special, and she was such a great girl.”

Following Chewie’s death, Ripa revealed she was able to say a very special last goodbye. “She never let us kiss her face, she was very precious about her face. She was not that dog,” she shared. “And after she passed away last night, I kissed her 1,000 times on her face. I kissed her nose, I’d never kissed her nose before.” Ripa joked, “I know that she was like somewhere in dog heaven, pissed off. But I didn’t care because it just was so nice to have that.”