Famous co-star recalls the electrifying moment Kelly Ripa first met husband Mark Consuelos

Sarah Michelle Gellar is part of one of Hollywood’s most iconic and long-lasting couples alongside her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.

But the Scooby Doo actress revealed this week that she had a front-row seat to the beginning of another iconic couple long before her own love story bloomed — none other than Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.

Sarah made an appearance on the married couple’s show, Live! With Kelly and Mark on Tuesday, and reminisced with them about the fateful day they first met on the set of the hit show All My Children. 

 “I will never, ever forget the story — this is a true story, you can tell me if I tell it wrong — but I was, I guess I was in the hair and makeup,” Sarah recalled, referring to when she had a regular role on the series from 1993 until 1995.

“And Kelly comes in. This is the ’90s, so she has those huge Velcro rollers she used to wear in her hair,” she laughed. 

“And she comes running in, she’s like, ‘Oh my God!’ I’m like, ‘What happened?‘ she’s like, ‘There’s the most beautiful man in the rehearsal hall. I have never… I’m in love!‘ And that is you!“ she finished, pointing at Mark, her former co-star. 

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Mark played Kelly’s love interest on the show after the pair met in a 1995 audition and sparks flew instantly. 

“She literally saw you, and this girl is never at a loss for words,“ the 47-year-old told Mark. “She was at a complete loss for words.“ 

“Thank God I recovered,“ Kelly laughed. 

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Kelly and Mark’s romance is the stuff of legend; the mother of three even felt a premonition when she first laid eyes on her future husband. 

“They had been looking for this character for some time,“ she recalled on Lunch with Bruce in 2018. “And so I had auditioned every Latino actor in the city and around the city and then California. And then all of a sudden, Judy Blye Wilson, who was the casting director at All My Children, said, ‘I found him.‘”

“[Judy] showed me his picture…at that point, I was not a hopeless romantic. I never thought about getting married; it never occurred to me that I would grow old with someone.”

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

Kelly and Mark quickly fell in love after he landed the role, and the pair eloped in 1996. 

They are the proud parents of Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 21. 

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As for Sarah, she is living her own Hollywood love story with her I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star, Freddie. 

The couple have been married since 2002 and are currently living on opposite sides of the world while Freddie films the sequel to the horror flick.  

Freddie is working in Sydney, Australia, while Sarah resides with their kids Charlotte, 15, and Rocky, 12, in Los Angeles; she sweetly brought them to visit their dad over the Thanksgiving holiday.