Kelly Ripa cries as she opens up about ‘tremendous loss’ for family and 3 grown-up children

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are mourning a “tremendous loss.”

On the Wednesday, February 5 installment of LIVE with Kelly & Mark, the couple and co-hosts announced that they had said goodbye to one of their beloved dogs, Chewie.

The All My Children alums have been married since 1996, and are parents to three kids, Michael, 27, Lola, 23, and Joaquin, 21.

Mark was the first to address news of Chewie’s passing, telling their LIVE audience that they had “a rough night yesterday, rough day yesterday.”

“We had to say goodbye to Chewie yesterday,” he then shared, before reflecting on their decision with their veterinarian to put Chewie, who was 17 and seemingly increasingly sick, to sleep.

Mark explained: “Chewie had stopped eating for a couple of days and had been eating less and less for the past few weeks, was extremely dehydrated and has neurological stuff going down,” before noting that as much as you know you are doing the right thing by letting them rest, it’s “not easy.”

“It’s probably one of the toughest things that we have had to do as a married couple,” he added, before emphasizing: “I mean thank God that we haven’t had any tragedy befall us like that, but she was just a great part of our life.”

“She grew up with our kids,” he went on, and further shared: “It’s grief, it really is grief,” though he said they were at least at peace that they “did the right thing, because it was just going to get really, really bad over the next few days.”

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While he shared the news, Kelly sat next to him quiet and emotional. “I know you have taken it hard so I’ll do the heavy lifting today,” Mark offered, and Kelly replied, through tears: “I know I’m really sorry, I thought I got it all out guys, I really thought I got it all out, and I apologize, because I did not — this is not how I wanted this to go down.”

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She then reflected: “She gave us so much, we’re filled with gratitude for this,” and maintained: “She gave us so much, and as each one of our kids left for college and then moved out on their own, Chewie remained right there like our steadfast companion.”

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“We’ve been so lucky, we’re very fortunate people … we’ve not had loss in our lives, tremendous loss like this. We still have all of our parents.”

“We’re so fortunate so I feel very bad crying in front of everyone when people have — there are much bigger problems in the world and I understand that but you have to understand that this dog was so special and she was such a good girl,” she added.