Things haven't always been easy for morning show star Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos. Despite their on-screen chemistry and long-running relationship, Kelly says Mark made things very hard in the early days of their marriage thanks to his uncontrollable jealousy.
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Kelly and Mark discussed the early days of their marriage during a podcast appearance.
The married couple dug into their past during an appearance on Kelly's new Sirius XM podcast Let's Talk Off Camera, calling her husband's jealousy a "hard pill to swallow" once she discovered it shortly after their marriage.
The pair tied the knot in May 1996, and just one week later, Mark made the startling reveal to his wife.
Apparently Mark let the facade slip while out to dinner with his wife.
"We went to this Italian restaurant and the waiter was this very cute old man," Kelly began the story. "He was definitely in his 70s if not 80s, and he leaned down and he said, 'And for the principessa?'"
Kelly recalled how Mark immediately "picked a horrible fight" with her after accusing her of giving her order in a "very smiley way."
Um, hello red flags.
For his part, Mark says he wasn't in a good place back then.
Mark, who was just 25 years old at the time, admitted to having a problem with jealousy, saying he was "pretty insane" back then.
Apparently, he struggled to overcome his jealous ways, saying they followed him for "a while" before confirming that he was "not jealous anymore."
It doesn't sound like Mark overcame things easily, though, and both he and Kelly talked about the dedication and work he's done on himself to change.
Kelly admits that Mark's behavior put a strain on their relationship.
Even at that young age, it couldn't have been easy for the pair to navigate life as newlyweds while dealing with Mark's issues.
"It's very hard being married to somebody who is jealous," Kelly explained to the audience, calling it a "hard pill to swallow."
In fact, Kelly says she used to "pray" for her husband to "lose this personality flaw."
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These days Mark has tamed his demons.
Saying she's "so grateful," Kelly explained how her husband had overcome things. These days the pair seems to be on the same page about nearly everything, which is good news because they'll be spending a lot of time together now that Mark is replacing Ryan Seacrest as Kelly's morning show cohost.
We're glad things worked out for the duo. Stories like this don't always have happy endings!
