As the youngest of the family, when Joaquin left home for college, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos became empty nesters. According to ET, dropping off her son for college was “actually brutally painful” for Ripa.
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“I gave him a hug and I said, ‘I did not realize that 18 years would go so fast.’ And he didn’t say anything. He was just giving me a hug,” Ripa explained. “He turned to walk away and I said, ‘Wait, Joaquin, one more!’ And he kept walking. And I knew that it was happening to him too, the emotion.”
As the last baby to arrive, the couple didn’t even have a name for him picked out, though they did remember that Joaquin was originally set for older brother Michael. After they found out the new baby would be a boy, Ripa related on the show that Consuelos immediately said (via YouTube), “Now batting … batting… batting… Joaquin… quin…quin … Consuelos …suelos … suelos.”
In typical Ripa fashion, the mom of three finished the story with, “Ryan, ask me how many baseball games Joaquin’s played in.” After Ryan complied, Ripa blurted out, “Zero, zero baseball games.”