Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos have started off May with a doozy – the couple are not only celebrating their wedding anniversary, but saying goodbye to their dear friend.
The couple marked 28 years of marriage on the latest edition of their morning talk show Live with Kelly and Mark, immediately walking out to rapturous applause and cheers from their studio audience.
However, the moment turned more emotional when Kelly, 53, turned her attention sideways to their executive producer, frequent cameo-maker, and longtime friend Art Moore.
She announced on the show that Art, after over five decades with ABC News, a majority of that time with Live and its different iterations, was hanging up his hat and retiring.
After saying they were "paying tribute" to Art after 53 years with the network, she quipped: "He's chosen today, yes today, our wedding anniversary, today, of all days, to announce that…the time has come."
The longtime network exec will officially retire in September, and noted to Kelly and Mark, also 53, that today was also the anniversary of him joining the network. She joked in response: "That is why we chose May 1st to get married, we knew it was Art Moore's anniversary date."
Mark playfully mentioned that the year Art joined WABC, 1989, was the year he graduated from high school, but his wife then took a moment to sincerely thank her longtime friend and colleague for his work with the network and on her show.
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"Art is the reason that I am here and I have stayed here all these years. You are so, so important to me personally, to our family. You are one in a gazillion, you mean so much to all of us here. You're the most special, devoted, loyal, extraordinary person I've ever met in my life."
As Art struggled to fight back his emotions, she continued: "I lack the vocabulary to properly tell you what you mean to me and to all of us here. We love and adore you, and I will spend the next several months of my life talking you out of this."
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Kelly did bring some more levity to the occasion, adding: "I'm convinced that over the next several months, I will be able to talk Art out of retirement, because I am nothing if not relentless, as you know."
In a statement to Variety, Debra O'Connell, the President of News Groups and Networks at Disney Entertainment, shared: "Art Moore is simply the best of the best."
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"His creativity, ability to handle any production challenge and keen sense of what the audience wants is unparalleled in daytime television, and can only be rivaled by his huge heart, the guiding hand he lends to any colleague at any time, and the sheer joy he brings to the job."
"Words don't adequately express how much he is appreciated and will be missed – not just across the company but with viewers who have come to love him as much as we do."
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