Kelly Ripa had to look away from ‘teary-eyed’ Mark Consuelos during emotional Disney Legends acceptance speech

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are back for a shiny new season of Live, and, naturally, their on- and off-screen chemistry shined through once again.

The longtime spouses and morning show cohosts returned Tuesday to host the program’s first new episode of the season, with Consuelos using the opening segment to highlight a prestigious honor his wife received while the series was on its summer hiatus.

“The one thing that we did that I thought was absolutely amazing was we went to Disneyland, and Kelly was presented with her Disney Legends award,” Consuelos said, as the show flashed a photo of Ripa with Mickey Mouse at August’s D23 convention in Anaheim, Calif.

“I was there watching your speech. I got teary-eyed,” he continued, to which Ripa responded: “I know, I looked away from you when you did. I was like, ‘Okay,’ so I just looked at [fellow Disney Legends honoree] Angela Bassett the whole time.”

Consuelos laughed as he asked his wife, “What did you want me to do?” as Ripa confirmed she “didn’t want to be emotional with” Consuelos, as she wouldn’t have been able to hold it together if they both broke down.

“So, I just looked at Angela,” Ripa quipped, telling her husband that his eyes “are very big and very expressive,” and hard to ignore as a result. “He looks like the emoji where the eyes are filled with tears,” Ripa said.

Consuelos and the couple’s daughter, Lola, joined Ripa for the Aug. 11 awards ceremony, where the former All My Children actress was honored alongside fellow influential ABC/Disney company mainstays like Bassett (who became the first performer to receive an Oscar nod for a Marvel production in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Star Wars and Indiana Jones actor Harrison Ford, and Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus.

The singer-star jokingly apologized to Mickey Mouse for her rise to pop superstardom following her exit from Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel sitcom that boosted her career as a child star.

“In 2005, Disney was on a mission to rebuild and reimagine the company. That’s why they hired Bob Iger, and me,” she said on stage at the Honda Center, laughing. “I remember this clearly because it was during the auditioning process of Hannah Montana. There was a buzz in that Burbank Disney office where it’s rumored that they create all of us Disney Kids.”

She continued: “I definitely wasn’t created in a lab and if I was there must’ve been a bug in the system which caused me to malfunction somewhere between the years of 2013 and ‘16… Sorry Mickey.”

Live With Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication. Check your local listings for showtimes in your area.

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