Susan Lucci was there when Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos first met — and it was steamy!
Speaking before an audience for Susan Lucci in Conversation with Andy Cohen: All My Children at 55 at 92NY in New York City on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the 78-year-old actress, who starred as Erica Kane in the ABC daytime soap opera, shared fond — and juicy — memories of her former costars.
“I just have to say something about Mark and Kelly,” Lucci cut in to tell host Cohen during the event.
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“I was happy to be in the hair and makeup room watching their audition scenes, and we were all like, ‘Oh, get a room!’ ” she said of the real-life couple who played the roles of lovers Hayley Vaughan and Mateo Santos.
The audition she was referring to happened in 1995.
Lucci added, “The chemistry between you two was coming right through the screen.”
Following their secret 1996 elopement, the characters played by Ripa, 54, and Consuelos, 53, also tied the knot on-camera during a wedding on the series in 2000.
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He later said they kept their impromptu Las Vegas wedding under wraps because “people tend to think there’ll be problems when you’re dating your costar.”
Since exiting the soap in 2002, the couple — who still work together as the hosts of Live! with Kelly and Mark — have become parents to sons Michael and Joaquin, and daughter Lola.
During the All My Children at 55 event, casting director Judy Blye Wilson said it wasn’t easy convincing execs that Consuelos was perfect for the role of Mateo.
“They couldn’t make a decision about Mark, and I was so behind him and I brought Kelly into my office, and I showed her a black and white picture of him and his headshot, and she really liked him, really,” Wilson recalled.
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“And I don’t know why they were dragging their heels on it, but they actually had him play the role, so he started playing the role, and I had to continue to search for another person. So we screen-tested Mark several times,” she continued. “Finally, I begged the producer, and she relinquished, and it turned out to be the best, one of the best parts I ever cast.”
And Ripa would agree.
In a 2019 interview with Bruce Bozzi on his SiriusXM radio show, the soap opera alum said she knew Consuelos was “the one” the second she saw a picture of the future Riverdale actor.
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“They had been looking for this character for some time. They were looking really for a Latino actor,” Ripa said. “And so I had auditioned every Latino actor in the city and around the city and then California. And then all of a sudden, Judy Blye Wilson, who was the casting director at All My Children, said, ‘I found him.'”
In addition to Lucci, Cohen and Wilson, All My Children at 55 also included Jill Larson (Opal Cortlandt), Eden Riegel (Bianca Montgomery), Jennifer Bassey (Marian Colby), Francesca James (Kitty Shea and Kelly Cole) as well as former head writer Lorraine Broderick.
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