While parents Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have enjoyed spending time with their three children during quarantine, the couple is ready for some alone time. Michael, Lola, and Joaquin will all be out of the house next year. Ripa and Consuelos plan on living it up in their empty nest.
In a new interview with People, the Live with Kelly and Ryan host opened up about her family and what life will look like for her and her husband once her children fly the coop.
“We had our kids so young…”
“We had our kids so young — we’d only been married for one year when we had Michael, so we have had kids pretty much our entire marriage,” Ripa told People. “So when it comes to an empty nest, we’re looking forward to it, honestly.”
The TV personality is not the only one! Both her husband and daughter have something to say about the matter.
Consuelos has been looking forward to empty-nesting after a friend, Rob Lowe, described its glories.
“Rob Lowe says that once your kids leave, you pretty much never put clothes on ever again; you’re just naked all the time,” the Riverdale actor said. “So there’s that too!”
While the couple is looking forward to spending time alone, together. Ripa still expects the kids to visit. “They’ll still be close to us, and they will come home, and we will still have plenty of times together ahead,” she said.
Michael, 23, graduated virtually from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in May and plans to be a screenwriter. Lola, 19, is a singer who will enter her sophomore year at NYU this fall, while her younger brother Joaquin, 17, used time in quarantine to study up for college admissions tests.
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Lola has taken issue with her parents’ flirtatious energy and described a recent “thirst trap” photo of her dad as “disgusting.”
The 19-year-old could use a little space it seems. After her mother recently posted a “thirst trap” photo of her dad in the pool, People recorded an exchange with her mother. Lola told her, “That’s disgusting. I block that out of my mind. I forgot that you even did that. I don’t even know if I follow you on Instagram still. I’m kidding, I would never.”
Ripa sporadically shares shirtless images of her husband. In July, she captioned one shot “Sunday vibes ???????? #daddy.”
The post has garnered over 100,000 likes on IG, so we think the public is siding with Ripa on this one. Ripa and Lola’s discussion about social media continued.
“The one thing I learned about social media from my daughter is apparently I should not clap back,” Ripa said. “But I feel like the clap back is what people want.”
“Irrelevant people should stay out of our lives,” Lola replied.
The family dynamic will soon change with the kids out of the house and Lola can, indeed, unfollow mom on Insta to maintain her sanity. Ripa’s not worried about the family staying close, however.
“We love each other — but we also really like each other, and we respect each other,” the talk show host said. “I don’t think any amount of college or growing up will take that away from us.”
Their family is on the cover of People‘s family issue this year. In it, the parents of three describe continuing to guide their children on their individual journeys. Ripa and Consuelos explain that they still learn new things every day from their sons and daughter.
“You’ll have conversations with Joaquin where you realize you’ve just learned something new about the way he thinks,” Conseulos said.
As for Lola, Ripa has learned “so much about being a modern-day woman,” she said. “It really gives me hope — her generation really supports each other, the way she and her friends have each other’s backs. For all the talk about women helping other women, I see it in her generation in a way I never have before.”
We’re happy this family is looking forward to their next chapter. It’s clear both Ripa and Consuelos are ready for some romantic time with each other. No one’s faulting them for that.