All My Children rose from the dead. The beloved soap opera, which ran for 41 years from 1970 to 2011 on ABC, had a cast reunion in an unlikely place. Longtime soap stars — and real-life husband and wife — Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos reprised their roles as star-crossed lovebirds Hayley Vaughn and Mateo Santos for the Halloween episode of Ripa’s daytime talk show, Live With Kelly and Ryan . And they were joined by some AMC A-listers, to boot.
TV Line posted a video of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos in a Halloween spoof that reunited them with several of their former costars from the now-defunct ABC serial. In the clip, which you can see below, Ripa’s AMC character Hayley was back in her black-haired bad girl phase, while her real-life husband reprised his role as her longtime love Mateo, who was ultimately replaced by another soap actor in the “reboot” scene.
Ripa’s Live co-host Ryan Seacrest filled in for All My Children fan favorite Walt Willey (Jackson). But the biggest surprise was the return of soap opera legend Susan Lucci as Erica Kane. In another sweet surprise , Sarah Michelle Gellar reprised her role as the original Kendall, Erica’s daughter, and Eva LaRue was back as the savvy Maria Santos.
While Live fans are used to seeing Kelly Ripa’s handsome hubby on her morning talk show, the reprisal of their life-changing roles was extra special for nostalgic fans of All My Children .
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos met in 1995 when he auditioned for the role of Mateo on All My Children , where Ripa was already a veteran as Hayley Vaughan. Consuelos auditioned for the role with his future wife, although he admitted that at first he was really only focusing on landing the part.
“I thought she was adorable, hot, and sexy and all that stuff, but I was very focused — I didn’t really think I had a chance with her,” Consuelos told HuffPo Live in 2014.
Mark Consuelos got the part—and he got Kelly Ripa both on and off camera. One year after they met on the All My Children set, the couple eloped to Las Vegas. Kelly Ripa and her man continued working together on All My Children for six years, and their characters, Hayley and Mateo, married each other as well.
You can see Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on the amazing All My Children spoof on Live With Kelly and Ryan below.
