Kelly Ripa Reveals Husband Mark Consuelos' Stripper Past

Talk-show hostess tells Vanity Fair he was just out of college and "looking to break into show business" when he had the gig

By Rebecca Macatee May 11, 2012 5:45 PMTags
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Kelly Ripa isn't the only one who's seen Mark Consuelos in the buff: The bubbly talk-show hostess's hubby used to be a stripper!

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, 41-year-old Ripa confirms—and isn't ashamed of—her man's history as a go-go dancer.

"He was [a stripper]," the mom of three says. "A lot of guys in Hollywood have done that. He was straight out of college, and he went to Notre Dame and finished his degree at the University of South Florida. So, there he was in South Florida, he's gorgeous, looking to break into show business, so he started off as a roadie to a group of these guys, and then they talked him into stripping."

Ripa says she even has "an old calendar pinup" of Consuelos, now 41.

"He is so unbelievably gorgeous, with a Mexican father, Italian mother born in Spain and raised in Italy, and I will never give him up," she gushes.

Were Ripa's mom and dad upset by her man's past gig? "No, no, my parents worship Mark," she says. "My husband is probably the most responsible, hard-working, diligent person I know. He is very smart and stable."

But as much as Ripa raves about Consuelos, don't expect to see him as her new permanent Live With Kelly cohost. "No one would make me happier than Mark, but he values our marriage and he says that he doesn't' see how we could stay married and both do that show," she says.

But her dream candidate to share the desk—"if it could be anyone in the universe," she says—would be Anderson Cooper.