Kelly Ripa’s Heart Broke After Her ‘All My Children’ Colleague John Callahan Died Of A Massive Stroke

When Kelly Ripa became a talk show host in 2001, she had worked as a young actress on All My Children (AMC). It was on the now-defunct soap opera’s set during her 12-year run as Haily Vaughan that she met actor John Callahan, who played Edmund Grey from 1992 to 2005.

John died on Saturday morning after experiencing a massive stroke at his home in Palm Desert, California, as The Inquisitr reported.

His ex-wife and mother to their daughter Kaya, Eva La Rue, digested what happened. After that, she posted a heartfelt Instagram update about their loss.

Kelly read what Eva — who had also performed on AMC — had to say about John, causing her to comment via a broken heart emoji indicating how she felt regarding the end of the 66-year-old actor’s life.

In turn, Kelly posted her own Instagram update to deliver the difficult news that nearly rendered herself speechless.

In the March 28 post, the 49-year-old television personality included a lovely throwback photo of John as he patted Eva’s pregnant stomach. Both soap stars wore winter coats and John had on a woolen scarf as the couple appeared to be standing on a red carpet. As they looked off in different directions, the couple was among many other people who seemed to be on the scene to get a glimpse of the two celebrities.

Among her 2.7 million followers, Kelly’s Instagram post remembering her former AMC colleague garnered plenty of interaction. The sad news about John’s death that Kelly shared on social media earned over 16,000 likes and more than 1,600 comments within a little over an hour of the post going live.

Fellow actress Lisa Rinna was among those followers who posted a comment on Kelly’s feed.

“Noooooooo,” she said, indicating that this was the first time she had heard about John’s untimely passing, as was the case for many other Instagram users who follow Kelly.

“Oh my god that is so sad,” commented Bravo’s Andy Cohen.

“So sorry, honey. Love you,” stated Broadway dancer Isaac Calpito, who added a purple heart and a broken red heart emoji.

“How sad and shocking. My condolences to his family, friends, and co-stars,” remarked a fourth Instagram user.

In addition to Kelly’s social media post talking about John’s death, Sarah Michelle Gellar also informed her 3.1 million Instagram followers about the beloved man’s death.

The actress, who also worked on General Hospital when she was just starting out in show business, was close to John. In fact, they were so close that he sometimes did what a close member of her family would do. For instance, the kind actor attended her high school graduation, as seen in the photo Sarah Michelle shared.

“[John] stepped into a lot of moments in my life because I didn’t have a father to be there,” she said.