Kelly Ripa puts marriage to the test in telling on-air moment with Mark Consuelos

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos may have been married for 29 years, but that didn’t stop the mom of three from putting their relationship to the test live on-air. Kelly decided to test Mark by telling him the viral “bird theory” phrase, which was developed by couple’s researcher John Gottman to test how a couple engages with each other, and whether they show interest in each other’s lives. Before they had discussed the theory on Wednesday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, the blonde beauty told her husband out of the blue that she “saw a bird this morning”.

“Oh, you did? What kind of bird?” Mark responded, prompting a gasp from Kelly. “Oh my gosh, he loves me.” Mark replied in confusion: “Yeah, I do. That was the easiest.” Kelly then explained the theory to him, saying that it “involves mentioning a bird sighting in a casual conversation.”

“If you mention to your partner that you saw a bird and they ask you a simple follow-up question, that means that they are interested in you, they are intensely listening to you, they love you,” she added. “Or they like birds,” Mark quipped, before adding that it was “a good test.”

“They see you. You’ve been seen by this person. But people that say, ‘I saw a bird this morning’ and get a tepid response of ‘Okay,’ they’re just not that into you,” Kelly detailed. “So apparently, you should file for divorce right away!” Mark then joked: “Break up with them.”

To see more of Kelly and Mark, watch below…

The Riverdale actor pondered what the equivalent phrase would be for men wanting to test their partners, as Kelly responded: “Any question at all. We would love it.” The show’s executive producer, Michael Gelman, then chimed in that sport was a good topic for the test, with Mark telling Kelly that he was “really bummed about the Buccaneers”.

“Oh no, what happened?” she asked, as Mark responded: “There you go! You do that…I saw a cool car today.” Kelly queried: “What kind of car?” which prompted a swift reply of, “You don’t like cars!” from Mark. “You could tell me the name of it and I’d still be like, ‘Okay,'” she added.

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Kelly and Mark have been married since 1996, when they eloped in Las Vegas after meeting a year prior on the set of the soap opera All My Children. They share three kids: Michael, 28, Lola, 24, and Joaquin, 22. The pair have been open about the highs and lows of their relationship, and Mark previously detailed their “agonizing” breakup, which occurred a week before the duo’s impromptu wedding.

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“It’s kind of a funny story, as we broke up the week before [we eloped]. I broke up with her because I was dumb, and it was the most agonizing week of my life, and I just knew I never wanted to feel like that. I’ve never felt like that in my life,” the 54-year-old shared on the Skinny Confidential podcast.

© Ann Limongello

“She didn’t return any of my calls,” he continued, adding that they were meant to do a day of PR together for All My Children, and he was taken aback by how beautiful she looked at the event. “And then after the segment was done, she lived on the West Side. I followed her and begged her to take a walk with me through Central Park,” he recalled. Mark explained that after their walk, he asked her to marry him, and they flew to Vegas the next day.