Kelly Ripa Responds To Criticism For Calling Mark Consuelos 'Daddy'

Anybody who follows Kelly Ripa on Instagram knows two things:

1. Ripa is fond of calling her husband Mark Counselous "daddy" in her captions.
2. She's not afraid to clap back at anybody who criticizes her for doing so.

In a new interview with Good Housekeeping, the Live with Kelly and Ryan host spoke about the ongoing Instagram debacle between her and the followers who really dislike the "daddy" nickname. While you may think Ripa sweats the criticism, it turns out she actually kind of enjoys it. She believes the fixation over her pet name for Consuelos is more about "social interaction" than anything truly mean-spirited.

“People on Instagram have very strong opinions, and I’m here for all of it,” she said in the interview. “Listen, back in the day... if you hated somebody, you really had to mean it. You had to write a letter on a piece of paper with a pen. Then, you had to figure out where to mail it. You had to buy a stamp. You had to seal the letter, and you had to mean it, like, ‘I’m going to mean this in a week from now when you receive this letter.’”

Now, though, Ripa thinks people are just looking for a little human interaction when they leave rude comments on her posts—yes, even trolls. “Nowadays … it’s more social interactions than anything,” she told Good Housekeeping. “I think if people are trolling me, part of it is they know what they’re signing up for. It’s part of the nature of if you troll me, there’s a 90% chance that you may get trolled back, and I think people like that.”

Back in February, Ripa explained that this isn't a new nickname, either. She told Good Housekeeping that their friend Andy Cohen dubbed Consuelos "daddy" 15 years ago. “I’m all about a daddy. I like a daddy,” she revealed. “You know how my husband got his nickname? It’s not from Riverdale. Andy Cohen gave my husband the nickname ‘daddy’ about 15 years ago. Mark was out of town, he was shooting a movie somewhere, and Andy was visiting. Mark said, 'Andy, I need you to lock up the house and make sure you set the alarm because Kelly always forgets.' And he’s like, ‘Okay, daddy.’ From that moment on, Mark became daddy, and everybody calls him daddy. He is a daddy to us all."

There you have it: Ripa has no plans to stop calling her husband "daddy" on Instagram—and she won't stop clapping back at the trolls, either.

Photo: Getty