Kelly Ripa Opens Up About the Unexpected Lesson She Learned From Her Early Days on ‘All My Children,’ Revealing How Mastering Emotional Detachment Helped Shape Her Successful Career and Personal Life Balance, While Offering a Rare Glimpse Into the Behind-the-Scenes Realities of Soap Opera Stardom That Fans Rarely See, Highlighting the Importance of Protecting One’s Inner Peace in the Fast-Paced World of Entertainment — Dive Deeper Into Kelly’s Honest Reflections and Find Out Why This Lesson Still Holds Powerful Meaning Today.

Kelly Ripa. Photo: Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/GC Image

Kelly Ripa says a fear of being fired from set as an actress taught her to be “detached” about life on set, as it could all go away in an instant due to the nature of the business.

“A steady gig has always appealed to me,” Ripa said on the Friday, April 18, 2025, episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, touching on her lengthy stint on All My Children. “I liked the weekly guarantee of the soap. Most people, they get on a soap and their goal is to get right off a soap, and I just settled right in there. I liked the steadiness of it. It just gave me a layout of my life over the next year.”

Kelly Ripa (Hayley) and Mark Consuelos (Mateo) on All My Children.

Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Because of the nature of the ever-changing storylines on soap operas, Ripa explained, they operate on a different cycle than most acting projects.

“They can fire you every 13 weeks,” she said.

Calling it “terrifying,” not knowing if she’d be fired initially, the 54-year-old talk show host said soap operas taught her to be detached — a habit that helped her during Live with Kelly and Mark‘s recent move to a new studio.

“People were very emotional about packing up the studio, packing up their individual cubby spaces in the common office,” she said. “Everybody was very emotional about it, and I had a detached reaction to packing things up and getting out. It’s from years of acting. No matter where I was, my home was always temporary.”

She continued: “I always knew it was temporary. I didn’t know how temporary it would be. But I knew it was a temporary space, so I never allowed myself to attach.”

Ripa starred on the show from 1990 to 2002, even meeting her now-husband (and talk show co-host) Mark Consuelos on set in 1995.

The two eloped in Las Vegas and were married on May 1, 1996, at the Chapel of the Bells venue, just one year after meeting.

“It was really romantic, though. It was very sweet,” Ripa told PEOPLE in February 2024. “We cherish those memories, still to this day. It’s been 28 years and we still can remember every minute of that wedding. And I mean, it was really minutes. It was like two minutes!”

The parents of three share sons Michael and Joaquin, and daughter Lola.