Why Mark Consuelos Uses His Kids’ Bathrooms After They Moved Out

Mark Consuelos and his wife, Kelly Ripa, are enjoying being empty-nesters — perhaps a bit too much.

“It’s great,” Consuelos, 53, said during the Thursday, February 27, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside his wife, 54. “Their [rooms] are pretty much precisely how they left them, but I’ve been going around and using their bathrooms.”

Consuelos and Ripa, who have been married since 1996, are parents to sons Michael, 27, and Joaquin, 22, as well as daughter Lola, 23.

According to Consuelos, he has a specific reason for using their private commodes.

“Well, because we paid for the house and I’ve never sat there,” the actor explained. “I wanted to sit there.”

Ripa, for her part, is on board with her spouse’s quest for separate bathrooms.

“I, for one, am thankful,” she joked on Thursday’s episode. “That’s why we get along!”

The married Live With Kelly and Mark cohosts are based in New York City, where they host their eponymous daytime talk show. They also raised Michael, Lola and Joaquin in the Big Apple before they each left home upon respective high school and college graduations.

“I don’t want to sound morbid, but they’ll have to carry me out of here feet-first because I have gotten good and comfortable in this house,” Ripa jokingly told Architectural Digest in December 2024 of the couple’s dream townhouse. “[When I first saw the house], I was like, ‘It’s perfect, just hand me my toothbrush.’”

Consuelos, however, needed more convincing.

“We needed a place for all the scooters, bikes and sports equipment,” he noted to AD.

After Consuelos and Ripa renovated the property — including adding a cigar room for the Riverdale alum — it was finally move-in ready.

“I really feel at home here,” Consuelos stressed to the design magazine, noting that the wall outside the primary bedroom also features tributes to the now-adult children. “Those are our kids’ eyes [hanging up as artwork]. They don’t live here anymore, so when we leave our bedroom, it feels like they’re still with us.”

According to Ripa, she “could stare at [the] kids’ eyes forever” before revealing how she and Consuelos manage being in the house without Michael, Joaquin and Lola’s constant presence.

“I feel like you and I live well together,” she added to AD. “[Sharing a closet and bathroom has] also forced us to be very diligent about what we buy, wearing what we have and not being wasteful. It keeps you honest.”