Mark Consuelos announced he will undergo major toe surgery for painful arthritis he put off about a year, joking the procedure is like a C-section for his toe.
On Friday morning’s episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, the 55-year-old cohost told viewers the wait was over. “Today’s the day,” he said, adding he had been putting off the toe surgery for about a year.
Daily Mail reporting on the on-air exchange captured Consuelos describing an arthritic, painful problem in his foot and toe after years of playing soccer, including earlier talk of turf toe and a prior operation on his left foot.
He did not soft-pedal the discomfort. “No, it’s arthritic, it’s bad,” Consuelos said. “I need help. Yeah, it hurts.” He even joked that the pain in his big toe was worse than childbirth.
Wife and cohost Kelly Ripa, also 55, needled him that the procedure was “basically” a pedicure. Consuelos pushed back hard.
"No, I'm not. This is a major surgery. It's like a C-section for your toe."
Ripa said she would go with him for the procedure and take care of him afterward. She also admitted she was not passing up a chance to film him coming out of anesthesia. “I’m not resisting the opportunity to video capture you coming out of your propofol haze,” she said, noting she already had tape from his last foot surgery.
Consuelos had been fasting since the day before and said he felt “a little loopy.” He wanted to eat. “It’s dumb. I just want to eat! I can be convinced to eat at any moment,” he said. Ripa questioned the long fast and noted she did not fast at all for her C-section and stayed wide awake. Over the summer she had her own recovery from a gum graft.
He asked her for practical help, walking the dog and simply being present, and, in a joking way, to put the phone down and take the AirPods out. She came prepared with a list of quiet recovery activities: reading, journaling, and games, and offered to teach him to knit. Consuelos said he planned to bedazzle his boot.
The show banter stayed light. No clinical diagnosis beyond the arthritic toe, no hospital name, and no word on whether the operation wrapped the same day made it into the segment. What viewers got was a husband and wife trading barbs while he finally faced a painful fix he had delayed for roughly a year.
Ordinary aches do not care about the marquee. When the pain wins, even daytime TV hosts schedule the surgery and ask for help getting through it.
