Kelly Ripa Pays Tribute to Phil Donahue

Kelly Ripa honored the life of Phil Donahue, the renowned talk show host. Ripa, 53, took to Instagram to share her heartfelt tribute.

“Good friends are hard to come by and even harder to lose,” Ripa wrote. “To a life well lived.”

The post featured a photo of Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, alongside Donahue and his wife, Marlo Thomas. Ripa added, “We love you Marlo and will miss Phil eternally 💔 #ripphildonahue.”

The veteran talk show host passed away peacefully following a long illness, surrounded by his loved ones, including his wife, sister, children, grandchildren, and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie.

The photo Ripa shared was taken in April 2021, when she and Consuelos appeared on the “Double Date with Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue” podcast. During the recording, Thomas revealed that she never thought marriage was in the cards for her until meeting Donahue.

“All my girlfriends got married. I was a bridesmaid a million times,” Thomas shared. “[I said,] ‘I’m gonna be an actress. I’m free, I’m going to London to live for a year and do a play. I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’ [A relationship] just wasn’t for me. And then I met Mr. Blue Eyes here and it was like, ‘Maybe I do like this.’”

Ripa expressed her shock, saying, “I can’t picture the two of you without each other!” She added, “You really are peanut butter and jelly.”

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Thomas fondly recalled her first encounter with Donahue when she spoke to Us Weekly‘s 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me in September 2023. “I first met my husband as a guest on his talk show,” she recalled. “We flirted like mad.”

Thomas appeared on Donahue in 1977 and married the host in 1980.

Prior to meeting Thomas, Donahue was married to Margaret Cooney from 1958 to 1975, and they shared five children: Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Mary Rose, and James. Donahue had primary custody of his sons, so Thomas moved into a house full of boys when she got together with her husband.

“When I moved in with Phil and his sons, they had their names on their jockey shorts,” she told Us. “It was the first time I was with a man who had ‘Dad’ on his underwear.”

In lieu of flowers, the family asked for donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund.