ABC/Paula Lobo(NEW YORK) — Friends, family, and fans are still shocked about the death of former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Luke Perry, who died Monday at 52 years old after he suffered a massive stroke last Thursday — including Kelly Ripa.
On Tuesday’s Live With Kelly and Ryan, Kelly revealed it was co-host Ryan Seacrest who broke the bad news to her; Ripa said she was so stunned she “crawled into bed and stayed there.”
Ripa’s connection to Perry is through her husband, Mark Consuelos, who co-starred with Perry on the CW series Riverdale. Both Consuelos and Ripa both became close with Perry over the years: In fact, she moderated a Riverdale panel with Perry and the other cast members during last year’s New York Comic Con.
Ripa and Seacrest then rolled a series of clips of their time with Perry, which left Ripa shaken. “I’m still stunned. I woke up this morning thinking that there had been a mistake.”
Her voice shaking, Kelly said, “Our thoughts are with his family, of course and his beloved children who he really thought about constantly. That’s why he went to work, and they really were in his thoughts all the time…I’ve never had a conversation with him without talking about his kids.”
She added of Perry: “This was a good good man. You won’t see a person say otherwise. He is a good man. A good soul. Conscientious. A gentleman. A dear friend of our family of the Live family.”
She added, “I mean, when I first saw him pretty much how you first saw him was as Dylan McKay on Beverly 90210 … I was like, ‘Oh now. Now we’re talking about something…Now this guy is sparkly.”
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.