The ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ co-hosts open up to PEOPLE about their 1996 split

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos owe a lot to their time on Live — including their marriage!

PEOPLE caught up with the Live with Kelly and Mark co-hosts on the last day the pair filmed the long-running daytime show at 7 Lincoln Square (67th St. and Columbus Ave.), the Upper West Side studio that’s been the show’s base of operations for 37 years.

The talk show is moving downtown to 7 Hudson Square, the Walt Disney Company’s new New York City headquarters. And while there are a lot of upsides to being in the new state-of-the-art space, the couple admits they have a sentimental connection to the location.

Not only did Ripa and Consuelos, both 54, see their kids (Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 22) grow up at Live‘s studios, but the building also helped them during a rough part in their relationship.

Turns out, before they married in 1996, the pair broke up. But days later, they found themselves in the studio — then, filming Live with Regis and Kathie Lee — to appear as surprise guests for an All My Children fan the show was surprising on their Mother’s Day special.

Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa, on ‘All My Children’ in 1996.Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

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“We had to be here,” Consuelos recalls. “And we both tried to get out of it, but we both ended up being here on this stage.”

Appearing on the show together with Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford helped the pair realize they had made a mistake.

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos film the last episode of ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ from their Upper West Side studio.LORENZO BEVILAQUA/Disney via Getty

“Obviously, seeing her, it was like, ‘This is the worst decision of my life. I have to be with her forever,’” Consuelos says. “And I asked her to marry me and we flew to Vegas the next day.”

“Isn’t that wild?” Ripa adds. “So we owe a lot to this place. And it’s going to be hard to replicate.”

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on the March 31, 2025 episode of ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’.LORENZO BEVILAQUA/Disney via Getty

Ripa joined Live in 2001, and — after Philbin’s exit in 2011 — has hosted alongside Michael Strahan and Ryan Seacrest. After years of guest-hosting, Consuelos was named a permanent co-host in 2023.

Sadly, the show’s move downtown comes a few years after the couple moved uptown to be closer to the former studios.

“We used to have a loft down there that was like, a 7-minute walk away from where the new building is now,” Ripa says. “So we keep questioning ourselves, our life choices. But we’re not moving — they’re going to have to carry me out of that apartment feet-first. So I’ll do the long commute again. I did it the first 15 years on the show, and now I’m ready to do it again.”