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" It&amp;#039;s no secret that Kelly Ripa loves to chat.  In fact, Regis Philbin&amp;#039;s 36-year-old sassy, sexy sidekick on Live With Regis and Kelly has made a career out of being fearless and self-deprecating, willing to bare her soul and spill her secrets every morning in front of the millions of fans who have come to consider her a friend. So getting the perennially perky ex-soap star to talk about how she gets what she wants in life was a cinch: As far as Kelly&amp;#039;s concerned, she&amp;#039;s already got everything she&amp;#039;ll ever want or need. (Though, like any woman, she can think of one or two teeny, tiny improvements.)  &amp;quot;If anything, my life is over-blessed,&amp;quot; she gushes. &amp;quot;I have to regularly pinch myself as a reminder that all this good fortune is really mine.&amp;quot; But it&amp;#039;s not the designer dresses or the hefty paychecks she&amp;#039;s talking about. To Kelly, &amp;quot;good fortune&amp;quot; equals family: her husband of 11 years, Mark Consuelos, their three children \u2014 Michael, 10, Lola, 6, and Joaquin, 4 \u2014 and the full life they all share. Here, TV&amp;#039;s most accessible golden girl talks about the things that really count \u2014 and a few things that really don&amp;#039;t.  When you first started out in your career, did you set out for a certain kind of success? There was never any clear-cut path. And anytime I tried to have a clear-cut path, that&amp;#039;s usually when I would be disappointed. In the entertainment industry, you can only work so hard to achieve a goal. It&amp;#039;s really 90 percent luck, 5 percent opportunity, and 5 percent skill.  How have you dealt with the times when something you wanted didn&amp;#039;t happen?  It&amp;#039;s funny, I got a job on All My Children and then worked there for 12 years. Basically, I never auditioned for anything. I would ask myself, Why am I not auditioning? Why am I not being considered for other projects? Eventually I saw that I had to change my own destiny. I had to light my own fire. When the opportunity came to host Live, a lot of my friends said, &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re not a talk-show host, you&amp;#039;re an actor \u2014 if you go on talk shows that will be the end of your acting career.&amp;quot; But after I took the talk show, I was offered the sitcom [Kelly costarred on ABC&amp;#039;s Hope &amp;amp;amp; Faith from 2003 to 2006] and lots of other acting jobs. Sometimes opportunity begets opportunity and work begets work, and you just have to take a leap.  Do you hesitate to take those leaps because you want to be comfortable more than you want to be challenged?  That&amp;#039;s a big thing with me. I get very comfortable and I don&amp;#039;t think there&amp;#039;s anything wrong with that. I also tend to make fear-based decisions; I will make myself unavailable because I am too afraid. I had the opportunity to meet Barbra Streisand once and I was so overcome with fear that instead of rearranging something, which I could have easily done, I didn&amp;#039;t because I was too intimidated. I regret it and kick myself all the time.  Did you change after that experience?  Yes. In fact, soon after, a similar opportunity arose and my first impulse was to say, &amp;quot;No, no.&amp;quot; But Mark reminded me that I was rendering myself unavailable again because I was too afraid to just get out there and have fun.  Was there anything you always knew you wanted to have?  My family. And as it turns out, I have the dream job for a working mother. I get to work at 8 a.m. and I&amp;#039;m usually done around 10 a.m. For me, it&amp;#039;s about being there for my family and being able to work and contribute. I really feel like I have the best of both worlds.  What do you want most for your children? This is interesting because my oldest son, in his ethics class this year for third grade, one of his lessons was to use his power of persuasion with his parents to get something that he wants. And he got us to let him watch American Idol. We don&amp;#039;t really let the kids watch TV, except maybe on weekends. He actually made a case that I wouldn&amp;#039;t ordinarily buy \u2014 the social-outcast argument: &amp;quot;Everyone is watching it except for me.&amp;quot;  My ultimate goal is to raise my children to be decent, happy people. I think that&amp;#039;s all any mother really wants. With my daughter, I want her to see that a woman can have a career and a family \u2014 that it is possible. I feel like I can be a good example for her. It&amp;#039;s very interesting the way she plays versus the way my friends and I played growing up. She will put on her backpack and put her baby doll on her hip and she&amp;#039;s running off to work. Because I work in the entertainment industry, I&amp;#039;ve been able to bring my kids to work with me. So Lola goes off to work every morning with her baby.  When you first met Mark, did you know from the get-go that you wanted him? It was so funny because I have always been of the &amp;quot;If you like him, then totally ignore him&amp;quot; school. [Laughs] But when I met Mark, I was just sort of thunderstruck. I had a dream about him that night. The next day I went up to him and, although I didn&amp;#039;t even know his name, I said, &amp;quot;I had a dream about you last night. We were married and had a little girl and were on a plane to Rome.&amp;quot; And he was like, &amp;quot;Oh, really?&amp;quot; and walked away and probably thought about filing a restraining order.  What do you want most these days when it comes to your marriage?  Well, I&amp;#039;ve had a crush on my husband since the day I met him and I&amp;#039;m so pleased that I still do all these years later. The fact is, I&amp;#039;m very content in my marriage. We argue, but we know how to compromise, and that is really nice. When we fight, no one really ever wins. It&amp;#039;s not like one of us is living the other&amp;#039;s lifestyle \u2014 we&amp;#039;re living our lifestyle.  Do you have any words of wisdom for a woman who wants more from her guy in the bedroom? Fortunately for me, I&amp;#039;m not sure how to answer that question because I&amp;#039;m a very lucky and satisfied girl! When I tell you I married the greatest man, I&amp;#039;m telling you in all respects. But here&amp;#039;s what I would do: You just have to come out and say it. But you can say it in a way that doesn&amp;#039;t make the man feel intimidated or inferior. [She lowers her voice to a sexy purr.] &amp;quot;Wouldn&amp;#039;t it be nice, honey, if you tried this?&amp;quot; I know that I will read this in print and absolutely cringe. I hope I&amp;#039;m not turning you on! I&amp;#039;ll say to Mark, &amp;quot;But you don&amp;#039;t understand, honey, we were giggling and it was just funny girl talk.&amp;quot; Make sure you write how we were giggling about this.  When it comes to your looks, what do you want that you don&amp;#039;t have?  My fantasy? I would love to have an innie belly button. I would like to have the breasts I had before I nursed three kids. I&amp;#039;m not asking for large breasts, just the ones I used to know. I would like to have a narrower foot. I would like to have two right sides of my face \u2014 I like the right side better. I know these are all unrealistic things.  What do you have that you wish you didn&amp;#039;t?  I wish I had the ability to control my thoughts and the things I say a little better. I will hang up the phone with you and for the next three days debate in my mind every word I have said to you today. I call it posttraumatic interview disorder.  For your 37th birthday in October, what do you want?  Peace. That&amp;#039;s pretty much it \u2014 in the world and at home. I want the kids not to argue on my birthday. This is how I literally wake up every morning: &amp;quot;Mom, she&amp;#039;s touching me.&amp;quot; But it&amp;#039;s much louder and much more grating.  What do you want after a tough day when you&amp;#039;re exhausted?  I can come home miserable and say [in a whiny voice], &amp;quot;Ohhh, the tabloids are saying that I ... &amp;quot; and Mark&amp;#039;s great. He&amp;#039;ll say, &amp;quot;Snap out of it, Kelly, &amp;#039;cause here&amp;#039;s the thing: You have a husband that loves you, three healthy kids, an amazing job, great friends \u2014 and there are parents right now sitting next to their kid&amp;#039;s bed in a cancer ward, so if you&amp;#039;re worrying about what the tabloids say, just snap out of it immediately.&amp;quot; And when you have someone in your life who will be honest with you and break things down for you like that, it really provides perspective about what&amp;#039;s important.  Were you raised to be positive or is this an attitude that&amp;#039;s developed since you&amp;#039;ve had your own family?  A little of both. My parents and my in-laws are amazing. My parents are just so proud of their two children, and it has nothing to do with what we do for a living. For them it&amp;#039;s all about trying your hardest to be a decent person every day and being grateful for what you have. That&amp;#039;s how I was raised. What my family, Mark, and the kids do for me is slow me down and make me see that at the end of the day, none of the other stuff matters. It&amp;#039;s about the people who are in the room with me. So when you ask what I want, the answer for me is really simple: to live the best life I possibly can. We tracked down Kelly&amp;#039;s husband, Mark Consuelos, in New Mexico, where he&amp;#039;s filming the movie Husband for Hire (premiering on Oxygen later this year); you can also catch him hosting the NBC reality show Age of Love. Here, the man Kelly dreamed about shares a few of his own dreams.  In Husband for Hire, your character jumps into a relationship and the love comes later. With you and Kelly, did the friendship come first or was there immediate attraction? There was a fierce attraction right off the bat. But we had to work together, so we developed a friendship as well. It kind of went hand in hand.  She says that the day after you two met, she told you about the dream she&amp;#039;d had about you. Did it surprise you that she just went for what she wanted? Let me tell you something: That was about as forthcoming as she was \u2014 and then she played hard to get for the next two years. Listen, I don&amp;#039;t think guys like to be put on a pedestal or, you know, have their butts kissed. They may think they do, but they don&amp;#039;t. Honestly, that kind of freaks us out. [Laughs] We definitely like a challenge.  What did you want in a woman before you met Kelly? She&amp;#039;s pretty much fulfilled all of my requirements and then some. You&amp;#039;ve gotta be smart, have beautiful eyes, be funny. You&amp;#039;ve gotta be adventurous and a challenge. She&amp;#039;s all of those things. And beautiful. And sexy. Let me just put it this way: I married way above my station.  Let&amp;#039;s switch gears. What&amp;#039;s something you want from Kelly that you don&amp;#039;t get?  [Laughs] You know what? I&amp;#039;ve been married 11 years and one of the most important things I&amp;#039;ve learned is never to answer a question like that.  Well, what&amp;#039;s your strategy to convince her to do something she&amp;#039;d rather not do? Again, I can&amp;#039;t give you all my moves. Because if she&amp;#039;s gonna read this, she&amp;#039;s gonna know all my techniques. But who are we kidding? She sees my shenanigans a mile away. \u2014Holly Hays  She&amp;#039;s a natural: &amp;quot;Kelly was a total pro and so easy to work with,&amp;quot; says photo editor Annemarie Castro. &amp;quot;She made time to talk to everyone and gave out lots of hugs. On set, she had great energy. She made faces and hammed it up for the camera, but could also be sexy and gorgeous. She was so funny and nice. At the end of the day, she even wished me luck on my wedding, which I&amp;#039;m in the middle of planning!&amp;quot;  Can you see me now?:  During the day, Kelly and REDBOOK Art Director Emily Furlani shared cell phone photos of their daughters who are just six months apart in age (Kelly&amp;#039;s daughter Lola is 6: Emily&amp;#039;s daughter Ava is 5 1/2). No ladybugs were harmed in the making of these photos:  To tie in with the theme of this month&amp;#039;s issue, &amp;quot;Get Everything You Want,&amp;quot; we took a few photos of Kelly making a wish on some lucky ladybugs. The prop stylist Deborah Williams brought in a bunch of ladybugs in a container (with air holes, of course!), but throughout the day, many of the little ladies escaped. Everyone, including Kelly, tread very softly so as not to step on any of them. At the end of the shoot, the crew all carefully rounded up the escape artists and gently returned them to their container. We&amp;#039;re sure they&amp;#039;re bestowing their blessings now on some other lucky crew. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a1887/kelly-ripa-interview/>