Kelly Ripa says son Michael is experiencing 'extreme poverty' for the first time

Updated

Kelly Ripa is all about tough love when it comes to her kids! The 49-year-old talk show host appeared on Tuesday's Jimmy Kimmel Live! where she had no problem making some light-hearted digs at her two oldest kids, son Michael, 22, and daughter Lola, 18.

Michael, who recently graduated from New York University, is currently living in Brooklyn, and Ripa notes that the experience is not exactly the level of glamor he's used to.

"I think he loves the freedom. He hates paying his own rent and he's chronically poor," she says of her eldest. "I don't think he ever really experienced extreme poverty like now."

She adds that her son with Mark Consuelos used to never care about the money his grandparents sent for Halloween, noting, "Now that he's living on his own, he's called three times, 'Halloween envelope arrived?' Just so he can have electricity. He's experiencing being an adult."

Ripa also opens up about being "concerned" about both of her eldest kids going to school in the same city where they grew up. She recalls dropping Michael off at college freshman year with Consuelos.

"We drop him off at his dorm. We have lunch together. We look at each other. We say, 'We did it. We have a child in college. We did it! Oh my gosh,'" she recounts. "We come home. It's about 10 minutes away. We walk through the front door and he is standing in the hallway."

Michael had been ready to spend his first weekend in college with his parents. Ripa adds that her daughter Lola, who recently started at NYU, was much more eager to leave home, but not necessarily ready to leave behind the perks.

"Drop her off on a Saturday, Sunday evening our alarm trips. My daughter's having a party on the roof of our house," she reveals. "She was gone 12 hours and came home."

As for Ripa's youngest son, Joaquin, she quips that the 16-year-old is "not allowed to apply to NYU."

"He's not allowed to apply in the Tri-State area," she jokes.

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