Overview

• Consuelos recounted the episode on The Skinny Confidential podcast, calling the separation "the most agonizing week of my life."
• He said he initiated the breakup because Ripa "didn't return any of my calls."
• A scheduled PR appearance for a "Queen for a Day" segment on Live With Regis and Kathie Lee forced an on-set reunion.
• He followed a smoke break with a Central Park walk, proposed at his apartment, then urged, "Let's fly to Vegas and get married" the next day.
• They eloped in 1996 and kept it quiet for a month, with the account presented as a retrospective detail about a long-standing marriage and family.