Kelly Ripa mysterious absence from Live! sparks concern

Kelly Ripa’s three absences from Live with Kelly and Mark get more mysterious by the second.

The 52-year-old host was replaced by Anderson Cooper for Thursday episode of the daytime talk show, who was introduced by her husband Mark: "Filling in for Kelly today is Anderson Cooper."

None of the representatives for ABC and Ripa have responded to comment.

After welcoming Cooper, Consuelos presented him with racy-looking mushrooms and said, "Kelly was taking a walk yesterday and she sent this to us today — just for you and me on the show today."

"She was thinking of us. New York City mushrooms," he quipped.

Ripa was replaced by Maria Menounos for the last two shows that she missed.

Hosting Live! For 23 years, Ripa was joined by her husband in April after her co-host Ryan Seacrest stepped down from the position.

Speaking to the Daily Mail in June, Consuelos expressed his scepticism before joining the morning show, noting he was concerned about working with his wife.

"The conversation [about me joining the show] ran the gamut," he explained. "We said to one another, 'We're married, should be we doing this? Is it a good idea us working together?'"

"But each objection we had it was like, well we've done this before. We worked together on All My Children for years on what was a much more intensive schedule, we were on-screen love interests… we said if we can survive 12, 13-hour days of that, we know we can survive this."

As a matter of fact, the married couple first met on the set of their 1995 film, and have been smitten with each other since.