Kelly Ripa on Weight Gain After Ditching Alcohol

Kelly Ripa gave up alcohol nearly a decade ago, but she recently opened up about the unexpected weight gain she experienced afterward—a revelation that goes against what nearly everyone has to say about the lifestyle change.

“When I quit drinking, I expected there to be this windfall of weight loss because everybody’s like, ‘Well, you are going to get too skinny, and you can’t afford to lose it,’” Ripa explained to Andy Cohen, who filled in for her husband and co-host during the Wednesday, January 22 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark.

The topic came up when Cohen, who’s participating in Dry January, mentioned that he hasn’t seen the wellness benefits he expected, including weight loss. That’s when Ripa shared her own experience: “I gained 12 pounds [and said], ‘I don’t understand this magical weight loss that people apply.’” 

“I think I just took to eating the sugars,” she continued. “Because apparently, alcohol is like a lot of sugar, which you don’t really realize when it goes in it tastes kind of bitter.”

Ripa’s alcohol-free journey began in 2017, as she shared during a 2020 episode of the show. “I did a sober month — all my girlfriends did it, we all did it together—and I just never went back to it,” Ripa later told People about the decision. “It wasn’t even really a thought process. It felt great, I felt like I looked great, I felt like I didn’t feel hungover. Not that I was a heavy drinker—I wasn’t someone who got drunk—but even like two glasses of wine at a girl’s night out dinner; I would feel it the next morning.”

“I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it,” she added. “It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’”

While her alcohol-free lifestyle didn’t bring the physical changes she initially expected, Ripa seemingly has no regrets. After all, wellness extends far beyond the scale.