Kelly Ripa Is Embracing Her Empty Nest

Morning show host enjoys the freedom of living on her own schedule

Gayle Jo Carter,

AARP

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Published August 30, 2024

AARP (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Kelly Ripa, 53, has a confession to make. The Daytime Emmy-winning morning talk show host admits that, “I, through the decades of hosting my morning show, really have discovered I’m not a morning person.” However, she says her husband, Mark Consuelos, cohost of Live With Kelly and Mark, “is naturally the morningest person you’ve ever met.” Her strategy to cope? She never sleeps in, even on breaks from filming the show. “I stay a morning person, because falling out of the routine — even on vacation — it’s too hard to get back into the routine. So I stay the course. I still get up early.” Ripa shares with AARP her No. 1 beauty tip, how she’s dealing with her empty nest, and why she credits Celine Dion for her daughter’s passion for music.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You talk to people for a living. Were you always a good conversationalist? Any tips?

Well, I have the worst social anxiety. I will do anything to wiggle myself out of a party. I try to avoid it if I can, but if you are at a party — and you do have to go, and there’s no way out — always ask questions. Be curious about other people. The key to a good conversation is to be an active listener — to listen and to pay attention and remember — because people are usually telling you something interesting. The key is to listen and to take it in, and sometimes you’ll learn something fascinating. I learned that from my husband. He is somebody who will pay attention so intensely that he will recall a detail that any other normal person, myself included, would have totally forgotten about. That’s the key to all of it.

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on the set of "Live With Kelly and Mark"

The new season of "Live With Kelly and Mark" begins Sept. 3 on ABC.

Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Getty Images

All three of your kids [Michael, 27; Lola, 23; and Joaquin, 21] are now out of the house. How was that transition?

There is an adjustment period. I found that when our youngest went away to college and the other two were already out of the house, I kept cooking like there were five of us. Mark reminded me it’s just the two of us now, and by the way, we can eat dinner when we want. I was still on the family schedule. It takes you a month or two to sort of reframe your brain that you’re no longer on other people’s schedule. That’s very liberating, and a lot of people will say, “Oh it’s terrible, it’s lonely.” It’s none of those things.

Have you rediscovered anything about yourself as an empty nester?

What we’ve both rediscovered is that we enjoy each other’s company. Mark and I. We actually, I’m not gonna lie, we were afraid. What happens if we despise each other? But we really like each other’s company. We travel a lot more. Part of that is because our daughter moved to London, and so we travel a lot to see her. But we definitely will take long weekend trips and just go places we’ve always wanted to go, because for so long our travels were dictated by the kids’ spring breaks and what they were studying in school. Schools would recommend: “Oh, take a trip to Plymouth [Massachusetts] because we’re studying pilgrims.” Nothing against Plymouth — it’s beautiful and I was happy to do it — but now we tend to go to places where we always wanted to go. And I’ve rediscovered how much I enjoy reading books, because for so many years, reading books was basically me reading whatever the schools’ summer reading assignments were just so I could make sure my kids were reading the book. So now I’m reading for myself, which I really enjoy.

What are you reading?

Oh my gosh, right now I’m reading several books. I just finished King: A Life [by Jonathan Eig], which I highly recommend. It’s a long one. It’s a comprehensive Martin Luther King Jr. biography. I’m reading this book by Roxana Robinson called Leaving, which is so beautiful. I highly recommend it. I just finished All Fours [by Miranda July], which is the book that everybody’s reading. It’s bonkers, it’s wild. I’m just reading a lot. I forgot how much I like reading things that I wanna read.

You were just on vacation. What do you do with your mornings free from work?

During vacation, Mark and I try to go for a morning hike every day just to connect, talk about what’s going on in the world. Sometimes we talk about nonsense. My daughter begged me to start watching this show called Love Island. These shows I’m so fundamentally against and she’s like, “Mom, you have to watch it. You have to watch it so we can discuss it.” Because Mark refuses to watch it, I find myself telling Mark about the latest episode.

You’re on camera almost every day. What’s your No. 1 tip for looking your best?

Anybody who actually knows me can tell you this: I never wear makeup. So I do find it really ironic that I’ve spent my entire adult life in not just makeup, but television makeup, which is a whole other thing. But if you’re talking about real life, especially now in my 50s, I never leave home without sunscreen, and I put on [SPF] 50 or above. That’s the best thing I can advise everyone.

How do you approach aging?

I work with a hormone specialist who’s a longevity doctor, and we test my blood all the time, and we try to figure out: OK, my estrogen is lower than it should be, and so I do HRT [hormone replacement therapy]. I do a lot of bioidentical HRT work. I try to maintain a healthy balance. I try to replenish what is missing, naturally, whenever I can. And when I can’t, then I rely on the experts. It’s such a process. I’m not a doctor, but I feel like at this point I’m like the acting doctor of my life. It’s constantly evolving, it’s constantly changing. But I exercise every day. I’m diligent about it seven days a week, even if it’s just a walk. I make sure that I am moving my body every day because if you don’t move it, you lose it.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

The best advice I ever received came from my parents. My parents are like the biggest grounding force. They don’t understand show business. I did not come from that kind of background at all. But my dad always said to me, “Keep your nose to the grindstone.” I never understood what he was talking about, but I realized it actually just stuck in my heart. We’ve passed it on to our kids. It’s all about working hard. And people always say “Work smarter, not harder.” But I believe that you should work smarter and harder. And the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Do you want to do more acting? More producing?

It’s very funny. I don’t really enjoy being on camera. That’s never been my great joy. It sounds very strange, but that’s always been the way I’ve been able to earn a proper living, and it has funded all of the other things I wanted to do. It’s allowed me to start our production company [Milojo] and I really like being creative. My ultimate goal is to be off camera, so ultimately I would love to be a full-time producer. I really enjoy writing. I’ve been working on writing some scripts and developing some scripted projects. And so that to me is my ultimate goal. I do believe in the power of eventually handing over the reins of the show to somebody else, because Live is such an extraordinary franchise show. It’s such a special place. It is a grind — don’t get me wrong, and it is hard work — but it’s a lot of fun.

Do you have any favorite Live memories?

I have this video footage of my children literally making their TV debuts. I have this incredible baby picture of my daughter being held by Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer Lopez was a brand new, on-the-scene girl. It’s kind of amazing to have these extraordinary moments in your kids’ lives that they appreciate now that they’re adults. Back then, it was just like, “Mom’s bringing us to work today.” Celine Dion yodeled to my daughter backstage. She sang her a lullaby when she was in her bassinet backstage and she yodeled to her. And my daughter is a singer and a songwriter, and I always say it was Celine Dion that put that in her. I remember when Joaquin was the class president of Room 207 in his grammar school, and we go to the White House, and he got to meet President Obama at the time. And it was so funny because I said, “Mr. President, this is the president of Classroom 207.” And the two of them had the most charming and adorable discussion. My son, Michael, is the biggest Star Wars fan there is. And we had Chewbacca on the show. And to have little Michael, who was maybe 5 years old, standing next to this giant Wookiee — these are moments that I will have for the rest of my life, and so will they.

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Gayle Jo Carter is a former entertainment editor at USA WEEKEND, who during her 30-year reporting and editing career, has worked at USA TODAY, Voice of America and Feature Story News. When not interviewing high-profile people, she’s teaching reformer Pilates classes and doing her best to raise two empathetic, curious, healthy young people to adulthood.

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