As Mark Consuelos is gearing up for his highly anticipated cold plunge on Live with Kelly and Mark, Kelly Ripa is spilling the beans on how her husband preps to be shirtless on national TV. Fortunately, his years starring alongside a slate of ripped men on Riverdale have gotten him ready for this moment.
The actor, who played series villain Hiram Lodge on the hit CW show, opened up about his experience with cold plunging on a recent episode of Live — and later this week, he and executive producer Michael Gelman will take part in the challenge on-air.
However, Consuelos’ rock-solid six-pack isn’t going to form itself. According to Ripa, he’s been following a strict diet leading up to his shirtless moment on live television.
“He doesn’t eat any pasta. He’s not gonna eat a single carb,” she explained. “I said, ‘Would you like some watermelon?’ Because there’s fresh watermelon in the house. He goes, ‘No, too much sugar in watermelon.’”
Ripa continued, “I said, ‘This is what I’m living for.’ For five minutes, Mark is gonna behave like every actress I’ve ever met.”
This is hardly the first time he’s done this kind of dieting. While the couple lived apart as Consuelos filmed Riverdale in Vancouver, the actor — a sight for sore eyes himself — surprisingly felt threatened by his younger co-stars when it came time for him to flash his abs. And can you blame him? K.J. Apa, Cole Sprouse and Charles Melton are a hunky bunch.
“I spent four years on that show Riverdale, where those young guys were shirtless,” he said. “And then when they realized they can stick me out there too, I was like, ‘Oh, I have to compete with these guys.’”
Consuelos admitted, “I was cranky when I would have to get ready for [the show].”
And he wasn’t lying! Ripa told her co-host that he was “very cranky” and “had a mood” last night, before going on to explain why.
“I was asking him questions and then I realized — for every six questions I asked, he would answer one. But it was like from four questions ago,” she joked, to which Consuelos replied, “Lack of sugar — my brain slows down a little bit. It starts to slow down.”
Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. You can find local listings on their website.