Kelly Ripa shared a heartfelt message to Lola Consuelos on National Daughter Day, September 25! Kelly posted an adorable throwback photo of a young Lola, now 18, where she’s pictured hugging her daughter while at a horseback riding stable. “Happy #nationaldaughterday Lola,” the talk show host, 48, captioned the photo, adding three red heart emojis. “Im the luckiest to call you mine”. Kelly’s husband Marc Consuelos was a fan of the photo, writing “My gals,” in the comments, along with four heart emojis.
Kelly’s tribute to Lola came after she, along with Marc and their youngest son, Joaquin, 16, dropped her off at New York University at the end of August. Lola is set to begin her first semester of college this fall. The host shared the exciting news during an episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan.
“We moved Lola into her dorm and it’s one of those things that you don’t realize how close [the kids are],” Kelly admitted. “The younger two are really close in age. Like, I didn’t even know I was pregnant with the third one because I was still nursing the second one!” Kelly and Marc are also parents to their eldest son, Michael, 22, who attends NYU. He recently moved into his own apartment in the city.
(Photo credit: Kelly Ripa/Instagram)
“I just assumed that, you know, I was just gaining weight from nursing. I was that one person who was gaining weight from nursing,” Kelly continued during the morning show. “So they really are very, very close and I didn’t realize how close they were until it was time to say goodbye.”
Kelly went on to share a few photos from when the family dropped Lola off at her new dorm. The college freshman is fully equipped to live on her own, as her mom showed off her ombre pink bedding and her “old school” refrigerator, which Kelly joked, “looks like it’s from the ’50s.”
The mother of three said Lola has four roommates, “so it’s quite crowded” in her dorm room. “[They] all just met, it’s all brand new. Scary and exciting … The room is so tiny, you just forget how tiny it is!”
As for Marc’s advice to Lola before leaving her at school? — “Don’t forget to get the syllabus, the syllabus is your best friend! Let the syllabus be your guiding light [and] time management is your friend.” (And, he’s right!)
While Kelly said there weren’t any tears shed during Lola’s college drop-off, she did reveal when her daughter would be back at the “roomy nest.”
“There weren’t real tears but there were lots of ‘Don’t think I’m gonna be home before Thanksgiving because I’m not. I’m not gonna be home before Thanksgiving. You won’t see me before Thanksgiving,’” Kelly said, impersonating her daughter.