In 1997, Ripa sued her former manager and was awarded $104,482.

In 1996, Ripa and Consuelos flew to Las Vegas and got married. For a few months they kept their union secret until a Las Vegas reporter alerted an AMC exec, who warned them to tell their parents. They spent their honeymoon in Rome and Capri.

Before marrying Consuelos, Ripa dated actor Vincent Young.

Ripa was considering an offer from Mattel to be their touring, lip syncing, theme-park Barbie when the audition came up for the role of Hayley.

Personal Quotes:

"Daytime is such a funny medium; the fans either love of hate you and luckily, they liked me. I don't know why. There was something train-wreckish about the character." - to Digest in 1999

"In some ways, her life is so much worse that everybody else's, people feel almost cheered up and inspired. They feel like, 'If Hayley hasn't killed herself, why should I?'" - to Digest on why people like Hayley, 1999

"My personal favorite was when Mateo kissed Hayley under the mistletoe on their first Christmas together. It's my favorite moment ever in the history of the character. At the time, Mark and I weren't even a couple in real-life, but we liked each other very much, and we would look forward to our kissing scenes. - to Digest on her favorite AMC moment, 1999

"I was crying and being very emotional, and I just kind of looked at Mark the whole time... As soon as the ceremony was over, we had an overwhelming sense of peace." - to Digest on her quickie Las Vegas nups, 1998

"I had a picture-perfect childhood. My parents were like June and Ward Cleaver; there was nothing dysfunctional about them." - to Weekly in 1995

"They'll have to carry me out of here first. I have nothing to offer Hollywood right now that they don't already have 17,000 of. Let's face it: They don't need another 5-foot-4-inch blonde with blue eyes making pictures. Martin Scorsese has not been ringing my phone of the hook. If I'm meant to do films, it will happen, but I'm not going to leave a good-paying job where I feel I'm appreciated to go out to L.A. and wait tables. They'll have to fire me or I'll die here before I leave." - to Weekly on her future in 1993

"I cried for a week." - what she did after Digest named her "Most Annoying Character" in 1991.