Sarah Michelle Gellar Says Kelly Ripa Was at ‘a Complete Loss for Words’ the Day She Met Mark Consuelos: ‘I Was There!’

To Gellar’s surprise, Consuelos seemed unaware of Ripa’s touching first impression. After blushing at Ripa calling him a “beautiful man,” Gellar added that Ripa “couldn’t speak” when they first crossed paths.

“She literally saw you, and this girl is never at a loss for words. She was at a complete loss for words,” she laughed as Ripa added, “Thank God I recovered.”

Ripa and Consuelos met at his audition for All My Children in 1995. At the time, the show was looking for an actor to cast as the love interest for Ripa’s character Hayley Vaughan.

When the casting director showed her Consuelos’ picture, Ripa had a premonition.

“When I saw him, the photograph of him, I saw my entire future with him flash before [my eyes] — like I saw it,” she revealed in 2018 on Lunch with Bruce. “And I don’t believe in any of that and now I do because of that moment.”

However, Consuelos had no idea he even had a chance with Ripa after their steamy screen test. “I thought she was adorable, hot and sexy and all that stuff, but I was very focused — I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t really focused on that,” he told HuffPost Live.

The two went on to elope in 1996 and eventually welcomed their now-adult children: Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 21.