NEWSKelly Ripa Returns to 'Live With Kelly and Mark' After Missing 2 Episodes in a Row
Jul. 24 2023, Published 11:54 a.m. ET
Kelly Ripa was back in action on Monday, July 24, after missing two episodes of Live With Kelly and Mark last week.
The 52-year-old star looked refreshed and all smiles as she sat across from her husband, Mark Consuelos.
As OK! previously reported, Ripa was nowhere to be found just days after she joked about quitting the famous TV show altogether.
On July 20, Maria Menounos filled in for Ripa, as Consuelos, 52, informed the audience that his wife was "out on assignment."
Last week, Ripa hilariously brought up how she hopes to win the lottery one day and how she would spend her time.
"Listen, just so you know, I probably won't be here tomorrow or forever because I'm going to hit the $900 million Powerball," she declared. "Nobody will even notice I'm gone. They'll just think I've had work done."
"You know what Kelly said yesterday?" Consuelos said. "Kelly said, 'I won't be seeing you guys tomorrow, because if I win, I'm not showing up.'"
"She would ditch you?" the former entertainment reporter replied.
"Well, she wasn't going to show up to work," the handsome hunk said.
The athlete then pointed out that Ripa wasn't present, to which Consuelos replied, "She was in bed when I left. She was there. She was going off to do stuff, but wait ... what if she's not home when I get back?"
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Ripa has made it clear she will not stay on the show forever.
“I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but I do believe there is a great opportunity to get two younger people and start training them, because I like seamless transitions,” she told Variety earlier this year. “However long it takes to get two people up and ready is how long we’ll be there.”
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“I do believe in shepherding in somebody new,” she added of the next host. “I would like to — in the not-too-distant future — see that somebody gets to ingratiate themselves into our audiences' life. It’s like a long-term discussion, when everybody thinks the time is right, and it would be a universal decision — then that’s the time."
