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Fathers and sons bond in all sorts of different ways, but Kelly Ripa is still stunned when she recalls a “play date” her husband, Mark Consuelos, shared with their son at a Hooters restaurant.
The story broke on Tuesday, Sept. 10, when Consuelos, 53, announced that if his favorite team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, beat his wife’s beloved Philadelphia Eagles, they would continue last year’s tradition of the loser eating a treat from the winner’s home state.
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Last time it was Cuban sandwiches, but this year the Riverdale The star felt the symbolic meal should be served by the Florida-born chicken wing restaurant chain, known for its scantily clad waitresses. Ripa, also 53, couldn’t help herself and said: “I remember when you took our son to Hooters!”
Consuelos tried to salvage his fatherly reputation, shaking his head as the crowd laughed. But Ripa wouldn’t let her husband, with whom she shares two sons, Michael, 27, Joaquin, 21, and daughter Lola, 23, change the subject. She explained that their son “played together” and that “both dads took their sons to Hooters!”
Consuelos insisted that the outing was not his idea. “To be honest, we went on a father-child outing, and sometimes when your kid is friends with another kid, you have to spend time with the dad.” He went on to say that the other dad was not his “go-to date.” His opinion of the other parent was “solidified” when the other dad suggested he drive them all to get wings, and then “we ended up at Hooters,” he laughed.
Ripa let her husband “blame the other dad,” but explained how shocked she was when Consuelos and their son (they didn’t specify whether it was Michael or Joaquin) came home smelling like cigarettes. “I asked them, ‘Are you sitting in the smoking section?’ They said, ‘The whole place was the smoking section,’” Ripa laughed.
