Kelly Ripa Reveals Her First ‘Splurge’ Purchase, a ‘Weird’ Gift for Her Mom

The ‘Live With Kelly and Mark’ co-host revealed she splurged on a gift for her mother in an effort to replace a treasured keepsake from her childhood

Kelly Ripa just revealed her unusual first big purchase!

The Live With Kelly and Mark co-host shared during the April 24 episode of Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast what her first splurge purchase was at the start of her career.

The 53-year-old TV and podcast host explained to producers Jan Schillay and Albert Bianchini that she treated her mother, Esther, to an unexpected and “weird” gift.

Rather than a more traditional gift like jewelry or clothes, Ripa revealed that she spent her early earnings on a white upright piano for her mother, now 82.

Bianchini then asked Ripa if her mother plays the piano.

Her mother doesn’t play the instrument, Ripa said, but her grandmother “always had a piano” and, in turn, played the piano. Ripa joked that she and her sister, Linda, “took piano lessons for 180 years and still don’t play the piano,” adding, “But that’s our failure; that’s not my mom’s failure.”

Ripa explained that after her grandmother died, her mother redecorated, and “certain things just left the house.” She then shared how her grandmother’s piano was then removed amid the “redecorating” and “modernizing.”

The morning talk show host added that she speculates “it was valuable,” with Bianchini adding, “I’m sure it was valuable.”

Ripa continued to share that as a result of the missing piano, “nothing ever stood [in its place] again.”

“So with my first purchase, I got a white lacquer standup piano,” noting that she believes she bought a Kimball brand piano.

“Those are hard to find, white pianos,” added Bianchini. “That’s great. It’s amazing.”

“Well, in South Jersey, it’s not,” joked Ripa.

On Thursday night, Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, attended the Time100 gala, as she was named one of Time’s most influential people for 2024.

“She wrote a best-selling memoir, started a popular podcast, and welcomed a new co-host, her husband of nearly 28 years, Mark Consuelos,” Anderson Cooper wrote in an essay for the magaine. “Would audiences want to watch a happily married couple who’ve raised three genuinely good kids? Yes. The ratings are up, and Kelly has never been better.”

New episodes of SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa are available every Wednesday on the SiriusXM app and wherever podcasts are available.