Although Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have relished the time at home with their three kids Michael, Lola and Joaquin amid the quarantine, they also look forward to it being just the two of them when their youngest heads off to college next year.
“We had our kids so young — we’d only been married for one year when we had Michael, so we have had kids pretty much our entire marriage,” Kelly, 49, tells PEOPLE in thecover story of this week's Family Issue. “So when it comes to an empty nest, we’re looking forward to it, honestly."
Mark, also 49, heard from a famous friend about the glories of life as empty nesters."Rob Lowe says that once your kids leave, you pretty much never put clothes on ever again; you’re just naked all the time,” the Riverdale actor says. "So there’s that too!”
The host expects the kids to visit, though. "They’ll still be close to us, and they will come home, and we will still have plenty of times together ahead," she says.