Kelly Ripa Opens Up About Her Decision To Quit Drinking Alcohol

Source: Twitter

Kelly Ripa is opening up about her decision to quit drinking alcohol. And, she says that her Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host, Ryan Secreast, had nothing to do with it – even though he likes to joke that it was all his fault.

Ripa recently told People magazine that her decision to quit drinking actually happened around the same time that Seacrest joined her morning talk show three years ago. But, it was the result of a sober month that Ripa participated in with her girlfriends.

“Ryan likes to blame himself for me stopping drinking, he’s like, ‘I got here and you stopped drinking.’ It really was not that. I did a sober month — all my girlfriends did it, we all did it together — and I just never went back to it,” explained Ripa.

The 49-year-old added that it wasn’t something that she gave a lot of thought to. Ripa says that she felt great and looked great during her sober month, plus there were no hangovers. Ripa noted that she wasn’t a heavy drinker or someone who regularly got drunk. But, even after a couple of glasses of wine during a girl’s night out, she would feel the effects the next morning.

“I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it,” said Ripa. “It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’”

The mom of three admitted that quitting drinking was different than her experience with quitting smoking back in the 1990s. Ripa explained that quitting smoking was something she really had to think about, and she had to tell herself that it causes cancer, gives you wrinkles, and it can kill you.

Ripa – who has been married to Mark Consuelos for almost 24 years – joked that the wrinkles were the most terrifying part of smoking. But, she got serious when she added that needlessly dying early because of cigarettes – which is something she didn’t even like that much anyway – just wasn’t an option for her. However, when it came to drinking alcohol, there wasn’t much to think about.

Kelly Ripa also pointed out that her decision to quit alcohol was questioned a lot by people, but no one ever questioned her decision to quit smoking.

Live with Kelly and Ryan airs weekday mornings in syndication.