Ripa opens up about her relationship with Perry, who died on Monday at age 52.
Kelly Ripa is remembering her friend Luke Perry.
On Tuesday's episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, Ripa spoke about her relationship with the Beverly Hills, 90210 star, who died Monday at age 52 after suffering a stroke the week prior. Ripa's husband, Mark Consuelos, and Perry co-starred on Riverdale as Veronica Lodge's father, Hiram, and as Archie Andrews' dad, Fred, respectively.
Ripa revealed that her co-host, Ryan Seacrest, first broke the news to her on Monday and said she "never got out of bed the rest of the day."
On Tuesday, Ripa opened the show with a tribute to Perry. "We lost a great friend to the show; a great guy," she said. "Luke Perry passed away yesterday. Very, very, very shockingly. I’m still stunned. I woke up this morning thinking that there had to of been a mistake... He’s our age. So when somebody your own age passes away unexpectedly, you cannot believe it."
Ripa continued her tribute, telling Seacrest how she and her husband's relationship with Perry grew when they began working on Riverdale.
"In all of the years I’ve known Luke Perry and especially with Mark and Luke working on Riverdale and especially getting to know him on a more personal level outside of the show, he is one of the only people in show business I’ve never had a show business conversation with," Ripa revealed. "We talked about our kids, we talked about our relationships, we talked about raising our kids in this cockamamie show business life and making them conscientious or normal -- whatever that means."
The morning show host went on to rave about the late actor, calling him "a good man," before recalling his early days on Beverly Hills, 90210.
"I have to say, this was a good, good man. You won’t see a person say otherwise," she said. "He’s a good man, a good soul, conscientious, a gentleman, a dear friend of our family, of the Live family. I mean, when I first saw him... as Dylan McKay on 90210, it was like... oh now we’re talking about something. It was like, now this guy is sparkly."
Ripa said that Perry simply "shatter[ed] your expectations... in the best way."
"Mark and I would be at work at All My Children at eight at night still and we would be sitting in make-up and hair…watching 90210 for entertainment," Ripa recalled. "When Mark was working with Luke, I only called him Luke Perry. Cher is a one name person. Luke Perry is Luke Perry."
"Every time Mark would FaceTime me, and Luke was there, I would say, 'Hang on, let me get lipstick,'" she quipped. "Luke would say, 'Honey we are a little old for pretense.' And I would say, 'Not for you, Luke Perry.'"
Ripa ended her tribute by offering Perry's family -- which includes two children, Jack, 21, and Sophie, 18 -- her condolences. "Our thoughts are with his family and beloved children who he really thought about constantly," she said. "That is why he went to work. I have never had a conversation with him without talking about his kids."
Seacrest also paid tribute to the late actor, detailing how Perry's 90210 became an integral part of his teenage years.
"I was a teenager of the '90s and 90210 was the show we were obsessed with, and I remember, in Atlanta, my parents built on a bedroom downstairs, which meant I got to move from a little bedroom to their old bedroom, which meant there was cable and a television," he said. "I remember saying to Mom and Dad, 'Can I please have a TV in my bedroom because all I want to do is watch Beverly Hills, 90210?' And they said OK."
"I used to watch 90210 while on the telephone with my girlfriend at the time, so we could react to what was going on at Beverly Hills High," Seacrest continued. "I actually had the thought, 'Wow, I want to move to LA and see Beverly Hills and be on a show on Fox.' Even though it was all fiction, of course, but it just seemed so bright and interesting and I just thought they were all so cool on that show and they truly were."
"Then later I met him through our business. All those things you say about him are so true once you meet him in person," Seacrest added.
The American Idol host echoed his sentiments in a tweet on Monday.
"Luke Perry was a great actor and truly one of a kind," he wrote. "Watching him on 90210 was one of the reasons why I wanted to move to LA. Thinking of his family and friends on and off the set. Rest in peace."
For more on Perry's life and career, watch the video below:
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