Mark Consuelos Opens Up About the Grief That Started Before His Father Died

Mark Consuelos never had to say he missed his father.

“He’s always been in my life. He’s always been available to me,” the Live with Kelly and Mark cohost said on the May 12 episode of the podcast I’ve Never Said This Before with Tommy DiDario. That changed after his father, Saul Consuelos, died on March 23 after a long illness.

Consuelos, 55, said the final months of his father’s life brought a kind of grief before the loss itself.

“It was kind of a brutal five-month saga leading up to him passing,” he said on the podcast. “And I knew it was happening, like when I saw him, you know, that we all knew this was going to happen whether it takes a year or two years, this is happening. And so I prepared myself for the eventuality that this was going to happen.” 

Mental health professionals call that anticipatory grief: mourning an expected loss before it happens. In AARP’s guide to anticipatory grief, grief counselor Alan Wolfelt says families should not push away that early mourning. “If you don’t mourn well, you don’t live well, you don’t love well,” he told AARP. The process can help people face fears, say what needs to be said and prepare for the changes that follow a loved one’s death.

Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos and his parents, Camilla and Saul Consuelos, appear together at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Rob Kim/FilmMagic/Getty Images

For Consuelos, the preparation included hoping his father would not suffer.

He said on the podcast that he “prayed for a merciful exit” and felt grateful that his father’s death was “quickly and painlessly” handled in the end. “It was so merciful,” he said.

Still, the quiet death did not soften his absence.

“The reality of him being gone hit, of him actually being gone,” Consuelos said on the podcast. “I’m going to miss giving him a hug or holding his hand or just, you know, laughing with him.”

He described his father as “the best man I’ve ever met” and said much of what he values in himself came from Saul.

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos attend the 2026 Oscars in Hollywood. Ripa has called Saul Consuelos “the greatest person I’ve ever known” and praised his devotion to their family.

Julian Hamilton/Getty Images

Consuelos first announced his father’s death on the April 6 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. Kelly Ripa, his wife and cohost, called Saul “the greatest person I’ve ever known” and said the loss was affecting the couple’s three adult children, Michael, 28, Lola, 24 and Joaquin, 23. “This is the first loss they’ve ever experienced in their lives,” she said, according to People.

Ripa said Saul was also a steady presence for the grandchildren, often helping with the children while Consuelos was away working. “He was very involved,” she said.

After his death, the family’s dynamic shifted again.

AARP has noted that caregiving often starts before a crisis. “Caregiving begins before a health event occurs,” Joy Loverde, author of The Complete Eldercare Planner and Who Will Take Care of Me When I’m Old?, told AARP.

For the Consuelos family, the next stage appears to include his mother, Camilla. “Now we gotta take care of mom,” Consuelos said in People. “We’re trying to convince my mom to move to New York. … She’s stubborn.”

Consuelos has also been working through the loss while performing in Fallen Angels on Broadway, which runs through June 7. He said on Live that the play became a “welcome distraction” and that he felt he needed to keep going. “I know he’s there watching and he’s able to be part of that,” he said.