Just because Kelly Ripa is an empty nester doesn’t mean she can’t encourage her kids from afar.
Over the weekend, the Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host, 51, showed support for her 18-year-old son, Joaquin Consuelos, who is currently attending the University of Michigan.
In the clip (screenshot above), Ripa is holding a festive U of M mug in front of a window, which displays a snowy background. To top it off, the actress even has the school’s fight song playing in the background.
The pic is a not-so-subtle tribute to Joaquin, who’s on the wrestling team at the University of Michigan. Back in March 2021, the school’s official wrestling IG account expressed their excitement with a heartfelt welcome post for Joaquin. They wrote, “SIGNED: Welcome to the family, @joaquinconsuelos! #NewBlue #GoBlue.”
“Super excited to step into this next chapter with @umichwrestling!” Joaquin commented on the post. “Honored to be part of this great program.”
Joaquin was the third child Ripa sent off to college, which left her and her husband, Mark Consuelos, as empty nesters. After they dropped off Joaquin, the talk show host shared a photo on Instagram of the couple looking extremely bored and wrote, “So far we are crushing this empty nest thing.”
They also have two other children: Michael (24), who graduated from New York University in 2020, and Lola (20), who’s a senior at NYU.
Now all we need is a photo of Ripa decked out in the school’s bright colors, blue and maize.
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