Kelly Ripa and Bachelorette Jenn Tran Playfully Challenge Each Other About Finding Love on TV: 'Not the Same'

Kelly Ripa and Bachelorette lead Jenn Tran have two different ideas about what it means to fall in love on TV.

When Tran, 26, appeared on Live With Kelly and Mark on Monday, July 8, Ripa, 53, asked the physician assistant student why she wanted to look for a husband on reality television.  

“I have a question, where did you meet your husband?” Tran asked Ripa in response.

Ripa and Consuelos, 53, pointed out that they met at work. “On TV?” Tran clarified.

As fans likely know, the parents of three met while filming All My Children together in the '90s, but Ripa didn’t think that qualified as meeting her husband on TV in the same way one would on a Bachelor franchise show.

“Those are not the same,” Ripa said. “We were both professional. Were you acting on your show?”

Tran joked, “It depends.”

Ripa continued to defend her stance. “I didn’t marry Mateo Santos,” she said of Consuelos’s character in the soap opera. “I married Mark Consuelos.”

Ripa and Consuelos celebrated 28 years of marriage in May. The couple eloped in Las Vegas in 1996 because they had a rare two consecutive days off of work and they knew they didn't want to plan a large wedding. They chose Vegas after enduring what Ripa called an “endless” winter.

“We looked at the weather because we thought about going to City Hall but that was still cold and miserable, whereas Las Vegas, it was 85 degrees and sunny: 'Let's do that!'” Ripa recalled on her daytime TV show. “And so that's what we did."

Ripa said that she and Consuelos spent a total of $179 on the wedding, including airfare, because they used airline miles to pay for the flights.

"It was really romantic, though,” Ripa told PEOPLE. “It was very sweet. We cherish those memories, still to this day. It's been 28 years and we still can remember every minute of that wedding."

Ripa said on a 2023 episode of Live that the key to making it through martial rough patches is accepting the moments of frustration and taking a step back to look at the bigger picture.

“You’re going to fight, you’re going to have disagreements. Relationships, marriages are not sprints, it’s a marathon,” she said. “There’s going to be like, mile 24, when you’re like, ‘I quit.’ But you just got to push through. Just push through.”

As for Tran, she will step into the role of the Bachelorette after competing for Joey Graziadei’s heart on season 28 of The Bachelor.

“What I took from Joey's season was that you need to be vulnerable in order to really let yourself explore these relationships,” Tran told PEOPLE. “You got to let these guys see who you are, and you got to let them understand you.”

Tran teased that she feels “very happy” with how her season wrapped up.

“And I'm very happy with the way everything panned out,” the reality star continued. “I learned so much every day that I was there [to find out] about myself and what I wanted in a relationship. There was so much growth.”

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The Bachelorette premieres Monday, July 8, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.