Kelly Ripa delighted her 2.8 million Instagram followers with a heartwarming Flashback Friday showcasing a tale of two Christmases from two very different places featuring herself and her husband, Mark Consuelos.
The post contained two photos. The first one featured an adorable round-faced Kelly as a young child. She wore her hair in pigtails with a generous fringe that fell over her forehead. The Live! co-host had on a pair of green pants and a long-sleeved cream turtleneck with a matching green stripe and a coordinating pink stripe. She smiled at the camera while sitting next to a festively decorated Christmas tree that featured red balls, gold tinsel, and a lot of presents. The now-mother-of-three posed, leaning against a colorfully wrapped present and holding onto one of her white shoes with her other leg stretched out in front of her. Kelly noted that the year was 1974, and she was in New Jersey.
In the second slide, Mark sat atop a toy bouncy horse. He held onto the handles just below the horse’s ears and stretched his legs out to reach the footrest. Mark had on fuzzy white-footed pajamas, and he was in front of a tree decked out with silver tinsel and a variety of round colorful balls. A boy in blue PJs and another in yellow stood beside him. The picture was snapped in 1972 in Sardinia, Italy.
In her sweet caption, Kelly noted how the young boy and girl from such different places who enjoyed their childhood Christmases grew up to marry each other. In the roughly quarter of a century they’ve been together, the couple created their own family of three children.
More than 22,600 Instagram users expressed themselves by hitting the “like” button, and nearly 525 took the time to leave a positive comment for the actress and her actor husband. Mark chimed in and left a hashtag calling his wife a “cougar” because she’s roughly half a year older than him.
“I sure love these two little gems,” one fan declared, along with a crimson heart.
“Can your mom please give me pigtail lessons?! No one wore them better or cuter than you,” a second follower wondered, including a blushing pink heart smiley.
“You might be the cutest child I’ve ever seen!” a third devotee enthused, completing the comment with a heart-eye emoji.
“Oh my gosh! This is adorable. Wishing you and your family a Wonderful Holiday Season,” a fourth Instagram user replied, adding alternating red and green hearts.