Kelly Ripa And Mark Consuelos Heed Ron Howard’s Marriage Advice On ‘Live’: “We’re Going To Write That Down And Use It Later”

Ron Howard had us all in our feels on this morning’s Live with Kelly and Mark.

The Jim Henson Idea Man director sat down with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos to discuss the upcoming documentary, but first, the three took a stroll down memory lane.

“When you were a child actor, you were Ronnie Howard,” Ripa said. “Do people still call you Ronnie? The inner circle?”

Howard — who famously played Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show — quipped, “There’s not a lot in that inner circle. Maybe my wife Cheryl. Once in a while Henry Winkler will slip [Ronnie] in, and that’s very OK by me. And that’s probably about it.”

On the subject of Howard’s wife, Consuelos asked how long the two have been together.

Howard replied, “Well, it will be 49 years in about a week or two.”

Live viewers were then treated to a recent picture of the couple, followed by two vintage pictures, prompting Ripa to ask, “Is that you in high school?”

Howard said yes, before explaining that the picture captured “the first time Cheryl visited [him] on a set.”

“I was doing a TV show. We were just dating a few weeks, and I invited her to come by,” he recalled.

After Ripa and Consuelos asked if Cheryl was “impressed,” Howard bashfully replied, “You know, I was hoping she would be impressed!”

In the picture that followed, a young Howard sported a swollen eye from a “traffic accident.” Nonetheless, he and Cheryl, who “showed up at the emergency room” for him, were both smiling in the snap.

He eventually recounted their origin story, explaining that they met during their junior year of high school in English class.

“Neither of us had dated much before that, and man, we clicked. And I just felt it immediately,” he gushed.

Ripa chimed in, “You knew she was the one” as Howard clarified, “Well, ‘the one,’ I don’t know if I was thinking that way. But I just knew we had this connection. And she’s just a remarkable person.”

He then told the co-hosts, “We’re also fortunate,” before explaining, “Look, we’ve worked on marriage, of course. We do the things to try to keep the communication and keep the problem solving going well.

“But there’s also a little element of luck, because you have to grow together. And you never know what the journey is going to be and as an individual,” Howard said. “I don’t think either of us ever sublimated who we were as people to the whole, but the family’s always meant so much to us, and so has our love story.”

Ripa praised Howard’s words of wisdom as “the best description for a very good, strong, healthy marriage that [she’s] ever heard,” teasing to her husband and co-host, “We should write that down. We’re going to write that down and use it later.”

Consuelos joked, “Something about sublimating.”

Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. Check out their website for your local listings. Jim Henson Idea Man hits Disney+ on Friday, May 31.