Kelly Ripa slams 'fake outrage' after her son in 'extreme poverty' joke is criticized

Updated

Kelly Ripa is not here for the “fake outrage” over a joke she made about her son’s living situation.

Earlier this week, she told Jimmy Kimmel Live! that her eldest child, Michael Consuelos, a senior at New York University, is living on his own for the first time in a Brooklyn apartment. While he likes the “freedom” of having his own digs, she said he “hates paying his own rent” and is “chronically poor. I don't think he ever really experienced extreme poverty like now."

Her “extreme poverty” remark didn’t sit well with many considering how many young people in the world truly are living in poverty.

That led the Live with Kelly and Ryan host to respond on Wednesday after a fan brought up the backlash in a comment on an Instagram photo of Ripa with her son.

“Michael goes to college and is a senior and works full time,” Ripa wrote. “He is in his first non parent subsidized apt with roommates.”

She went on to say, “I'm used to getting a lot of slack because people love to have fake outrage over something they didn't see. They only read a headline and wag their tired fingers.”

Ripa concluded with, “I didn't grow up privileged and neither did [her husband, Riverdale star Mark Consuelos]. We work and we expect our kids to as well. And the fact that a pack of fools want to b**** about that, i say let em."

Kelly Ripa responds to backlash after saying her son was living in "extreme poverty." (Screenshot: Kelly Ripa via Instagram)
Kelly Ripa responds to backlash after saying her son was living in "extreme poverty." (Screenshot: Kelly Ripa via Instagram)

Ripa and Consuelos are parents to three children — also including Lola, a freshman at NYU, and Joaquin, who is in high school. The entire family was featured in People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” issue earlier this year.

Ripa recently helped out Michael, who’s in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, by being a producer on one of his film school projects. She said the gig reunited her with an old friend: Michael’s professor Christopher Goutman was a director on All My Children for 11 years and cast Mark on the soap opera in 1995. That’s where the couple met, worked together and fell in love.

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