


A name can cary some serious baggage, as Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa discussed on Live with Kelly and Mark this morning. Consuelos read aloud the news of a man discovering that his “wife named [their] son after her first love and [he] had no idea” until just two days ago, when the anonymous couple bumped into one of his wife’s high school friends at the grocery store.
Sharing that the two were “catching up,” Consuelos said the man’s wife reportedly “hesitated” after her friend asked what their now five-year-old son’s name is. After the man told her, the friend “had a strange look on her face,” as she asked the wife, “You mean like your ex-boyfriend?”
Consuelos joked to Ripa, “Now, when we were selecting names for our kids, I knew there were about a thousand ex-boyfriends out there,” before saying that he ultimately chose biblical names for their kids.
When Ripa was asked what she thought about the story, she said it was a “bold statement” to name a child after an ex, but offered, “maybe she just liked the name.”
“I don’t really think she probably connected her ex to the name,” she said, as Consuelos chimed in, “He had no idea! What a Christmas present that is. That poor guy.”

After learning that a Live producer did the same thing — naming her son Luke although she “dated a Luke in high school” — Consuelos asked Ripa, “Did you date any Marks?”
Ripa noted that she had not dated any Marks prior Consuelos, nor any Joaquins or Michaels (the names of their two sons).
“I know it’s impossible because you throw a nickel and you hit a Michael, but I never dated a Michael,” she said.
Ripa was asked by someone offstage if she had dated “any Lolas” in reference to her daughter’s name, which she denied.
“But thank you for thinking so highly of me,” she replied. “I was not cool like that in high school.”
While Ripa claimed it “wouldn’t bother” her if Consuelos had dated a Lola, Consuelos once again asked Ripa how she would feel if the same thing happened to them while in his hometown.
Ripa reiterated that it “would not bother” her.
“I am not that person, I don’t get bothered by things in the past,” she told Consuelos. “I’m not you!”
Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. Check out their website for your local listings.