Kelly Ripa Says ‘All My Children’ Is Responsible for Her Entire Life

Kelly Ripa may be one of the most successful talk show hosts on the planet, but she stays humble. The “Live With Kelly and Ryan” host spoke to Entertainment Tonight and reflected on all the wonderful things the soap opera “All My Children” brought to her life, including her husband Mark Consuelos.

The sometimes naughty Hollywood power couple first met on the set of the show all the way back in 1995. Ripa played “Hayley Vaughan” and Consuelo starred as “Mateo Santos.” They got married shortly after meeting in 1996 and went on to have three kids, Michael, 23, Lola, 19, and Joaquin, 17. For Ripa, none of this would be possible without the show. “All My Children is responsible for my entire life. I don’t like say that lightly. I met my husband on All My Children. I had my children on All My Children,” Ripa shared. “I got [Live With Regis and Kelly] standing in my dressing room on All My Children. It’s responsible for my entire life. I’m not being glib when I say that.” When the show went off the air in 2011 Ripa said she was “devastated.” “Not for myself because I had left the show by then, but I was devastated for the fan base cause it means so much to them,” she explained.

As for the future? Ripa already knows she would like to live out her retirement with her man in Palm Springs, California. During this week‘s Live With Kelly and Ryan, she and Seacrest are virtually visiting the California location. “I am very excited that I am getting a jump start on this,” Ripa said of her retirement plans.

Ripa has a long way to go before retirement though. In December it was announced that ABC is in early development of a primetime version of the classic show. Variety reported at the time that the project is currently titled “Pine Valley,” named after the fictional Philadelphia suburb that served as the setting in the original series. In the new show a “young journalist with a secret agenda comes to expose the dark and murderous history of a town named Pine Valley only to become entangled in a feud between the Kane and Santos families.”