Mark Consuelos recalls terrifying encounter with whale at sea: 'I shouldn't have done that'

Consuelos revealed that he once had a dangerous interaction with a whale in the Caribbean. "It wasn't smart," the "Live" cohost said.

On land, Live With Kelly and Mark cohost Mark Consuelos is one of morning TV's foremost hunks; at sea, however, he's but a minnow in a literal sea of whales.

Amid the spread of a viral video showing a whale crash-landing atop a boat off the east coast, the 53-year-old star recalled a particularly harrowing encounter he had with a whale while vacationing with wife and cohost Kelly Ripa, also 53, in the Caribbean.

"The whales were coming by. It was mating season," Consuelos recalled. "I said, 'I'm going to go out and see if I can get a better look at these whales.' There was a beach guide with activities, and I said, 'We're going out there,' and he said, 'No.'"

Consuelos, however, didn't take no for an answer. He admitted that he urged the guide to take him out on the water, and the local man eventually agreed.

"The whale keeps going back and forth. I think it had a calf, a baby whale," Consuelos continued. "I go out there and we keep tacking back and forth, I'm like, I can't believe this, this is great. I could tell the guy was a little nervous because he's been there. He knows. All of a sudden, the whale disappears, and we look down, I'm looking around, standing up, and I see coming towards us, underneath, it looks like a jet airplane. The water is ripping off. I could see the barnacles on the whale coming underneath us, and the guy goes, 'I scared.'"

The audience laughed, but Ripa said she felt genuinely scared for her husband.

"I was standing there on the beach watching them go back and forth, and you see this moment where Mark stands up, and I think you yelled, 'Kel!' at one point," she said. "I stood there going, whatever's about to happen, it's not good."

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Consuelos appeared to regret the ordeal, telling the audience that "it wasn't smart" in hindsight.

"It was definitely not smart," he repeated. "I shouldn't have done that."

The incident marked the latest in a growing number of wildlife-centered stories Consuelos has told on air, as he told the Live audience in May that he once got into a scuffle with beach-based birds on a family vacation.

Live With Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication. Check your local listings for showtimes in your area.

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