Ripa shares her now-adult children -- Joaquin, 22, Lola, 24, and Michael, 28 -- with husband Mark Consuelos.
For Kelly Ripa, the viewers of her talk show hold a special place in her heart.
On the latest episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the All My Children alum, 54, opened up about how the loyal viewers of her talk show are like extended family members, especially when it comes to her and husband Mark Consuelos' three children, Joaquin, 22, Lola, 24, and Michael, 28.
"Our children are fully aware. They'll meet people on the street that will come up to them and say, 'I watched you grow up. It is such a pleasure to see you as an adult,' " Ripa told host Amanda Hirsch.
She explained, "When my kids were little, they had the opportunity to come on and do, like, little segments ... and people got a glimpse into their lives. And then they grew up, and they move on, and they move out, and they move out of the country in some cases, and and people don't get to regularly check in with them."
"And so I feel like, once in a while, it's important to sort of let people in because I feel like they had a group experience. My kids had a group childhood. It was like they had lots of aunties, lots of uncles, lots of grandparents," Ripa continued.
The talk show host went on to say that her kids didn't just have their parents and siblings as their village. Instead, they have people all across America and in Canada "raising them in some way."
"It wasn't just our parents and our siblings They had, like, America and Canada raising them in some way," she said. "And so and [the viewers] really looked out for them and rooted for them, and they are fully aware of that."
These days, Consuelos, 53, and Ripa are enjoying their time as empty nesters. During a February appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Live with Kelly and Mark duo opened up about life with their three now-adult children out of the house, with Consuelos revealing the one thing he does now.
"[Their rooms are] pretty much preciously how they left them, but I've been going around and using their bathrooms," he admitted to Kimmel, 57. When the host asked why he was using his kids' bathrooms, he responded, "Because we paid for the house and I've never sat there, so I wanted to sit there."
After his explanation, Ripa jokingly added, "And, I, for one, am thankful."
In a September 2022 PEOPLE cover story, the All My Children actress opened up about how life has changed since her children left the family's home. "It's scary, thrilling, liberating, shocking... and quiet," she said. "I didn't know how to make dinner proportionally. Now, it's 10 p.m. and we'll eat."
"There were moments when I was like, 'We're going to be that couple: Our third child goes to college and we get divorced because this is it," she told PEOPLE, laughing. "But there was this other moment, where we went to the beach alone for the first time since our honeymoon with cheese and a baguette. These other parents were running around us with small kids. I realized I had never noticed the sunset because I was making sure our kids didn't run into the water when I wasn't looking."
In other instances, Ripa saw that she and Consuelos could get back to enjoying alone time. "So I think for us, it was 'Oh, this next phase of our lives, this is kind of great,'" she shared.