On the October 22 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, co-hosts and married couple Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos humorously clashed over their differing travel habits, leading to a playful on-air disagreement.
The segment began when Ripa suggested they might benefit from an “airport divorce,” a term referring to couples intentionally separating upon arriving at the airport and only reuniting at the gate. She explained, “Couples are doing something unique, and I want to run this by you: an airport divorce. You and I have different traveling philosophies, different traveling styles.”
Consuelos, taken aback, responded, “What do you mean? Like, I walk fast in the airport?”
Ripa elaborated, teasing that Consuelos prefers to arrive excessively early, saying, “You need to get there before 4 to 16 hours before a flight takes off.” Consuelos quickly defended himself, stating, “That’s not true,” and clarified that he simply likes to arrive about 90 minutes early.
The playful banter continued as Ripa accused Consuelos of getting “irritated” when fans approach him while waiting to board at the airport gate. Consuelos denied this, saying, “Don’t put that out there. I’m very nice to people. That’s not cool.” Ripa responded, “You are very nice to people, but you get irritated with me.”
ALSO READ: ICJ Rules Israel Must Allow Aid into Gaza, Ensure Basic Needs of Palestinians
Ripa then recounted a recent airport incident when Consuelos’ TSA PreCheck had temporarily lapsed. She decided to forgo her usual fast-track line to wait with him, but things didn’t go smoothly. She shared, “The line was too slow and he got irritated with me!” She added, “And I said, ‘No no no, this isn’t the part where you’re irritated with me because the line is too long. This is the part where you say, ‘Thank you honey, I’m sorry that I’m making you wait in this line.'”
Consuelos laughed but offered his version of events, insisting the story wasn’t quite so one-sided. “You go through life, 30 years you know somebody. And then when they tell a story, it’s like, ‘Who are you?'” he teased. “Because I was there, and she was there, and the perspective is so different.”
According to Consuelos, the tension came down to a simple disagreement about which line to join. “There was a fork in the road — go left or go right — and I said, ‘Let’s go this way,'” he explained, implying that his wife went the other way. “But I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so I just let it go.”
As the audience groaned, Ripa quickly defended herself, claiming her husband was not only wrong about what happened but also was putting his anger in the wrong place. “My line was straight ahead, where the people sailed through because they still had their TSA privileges,” she said. “But now I’m with Mark, so my shoes are coming off and everything’s being taken out of my bag. I am being violated in this line — and Mark is still irritated with me!”
“The airport divorce is what we are definitely getting,” she joked.
Later in the syndicated morning show, Ripa and Consuelos continued to bicker, this time while discussing a recent report that said hand-washing a car was better for a vehicle than going through a car wash. “I don’t have time — well first of all I never drive — but I think my life is too short to add car washing [by hand] to it,” Ripa said. “I feel like whoever got the car dirty, it’s their responsibility to wash the car. And if I’m a perpetual passenger, that’s not my problem.”
“Okay, so, how about inside the car?” Consuelos quipped back, as Ripa defensively asked what she did wrong. “Let’s start with, let’s get some Windex and maybe you’ll wipe off the feet prints on the windshield because the first thing you do is you put your bare feet on the dash, and I’m staring at your toe prints when you’re not there. I see toe prints on the windshield. You can start there.”
Seething at him, Ripa said, “I’ve got to stretch!”
After a pause, Consuelos summed up their morning of back-and-forths, admitting, “We’re having a day today.”
“Oh, you are going down,” Ripa said, hinting that their disagreement would be continuing off-air. “You are going down!”
“Just watching married people quarrel on TV. It’s fun!” Consuelos later joked. “Mom and dad, fighting again!”
Live with Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication. For local listings and more information, visit livewithkellyandmark.com.
