Kelly Ripa Responds To Backlash To Saying Her Son Michael Conselos Lives In ‘Extreme Poverty’

Earlier this week, daytime star Kelly Ripa appeared on an episode on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and she talked about her son Michael Conselos‘s life as a student at New York University.

“I think he loves the freedom. He hates paying his own rent and he’s chronically poor. I don’t think he ever really experienced extreme poverty like now,” she told Jimmy Kimmel. “Now that he’s living on his own, he’s called three times. He’s experiencing being an adult.”

The social media didn’t hold back with criticisms of Ripa’s use on the wording, “extreme poverty.” Many people were offended by the use of the phrase, finding Ripa’s comment insensitive to individuals facing real poverty.

After hearing of the backlash, Ripa decided to speak out on the matter with a post of Instagram.  “Michael goes to college and is a senior and works full time. He is in his first non-parent subsidized apt with roommates,” she shared in the comments section of an Instagram post. “I’m used to getting a lot of slack because people love to have fake outrage over something they didn’t see. They only read a headline and wag their tired fingers.”

“I didn’t grow up privileged and neither did @instsuelos. We work and we expect our kids to as well. And the fact that a pack of fools want to bitch about that, I say let em.”