Howie Mandel Claps Back After Kelly Ripa Says He ‘Looks Great’ at Age 70: ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’

Howie Mandel jokingly took issue with Kelly Ripa’s compliment on his recent trip around the sun.

“You just celebrated 70 years. You’re 70 years old,” Ripa’s husband and cohost, Mark Consuelos said on the Monday, March 23, episode of Live With Kelly and Mark, while Mandel replied, “Yes, I’m 70.”

As the audience cheered in the background, Ripa, 55, noted that “it doesn’t make any sense.” Mandel sat forward in his chair as he questioned her comment.

“What do you mean it doesn’t make any sense?” Mandel said as Consuelos echoed, “You look great.”

“I look great. That doesn’t mean anything to me,” Mandel said, to which Ripa replied, “Yes, it does.”

Mandel continued the exchange by noting that he doesn’t “like that ’cause that’s a caveat,” adding, “Because you tell someone you’re 70 and they go, ‘You look great.’”

Ripa interjected to note that the pair weren’t saying he looks “great for 70.” Mandel, however, said that they were, just “without saying 70.”

“No, we’re saying you look great, and I don’t believe you’re 70,” Ripa said, while Consuelos doubled down on the sentiment. “I am saying that,” he replied.

“It’s like saying you’re smart for a stupid person,” the comedian quipped. “‘Oh, you look smart! You seem smart!’ I don’t look good.”

In the end, the America’s Got Talent judge agreed with Consuelos that he does “look good.”

“Thank you. Well, actually, before we go out, there’s, like, a mirror back there. … Honestly, now, I’ll be serious for a minute: I’m gorgeous. I am. I am,” he said, as Ripa said, “You’re a thing of beauty.”

Mandel, who celebrated his milestone birthday in November 2025, went on to note that he has maintained his physique by spending time with pal Jerry O’Connell. He called the regime the “most ridiculous workout I’ve ever done in my entire life.”

“I swim but this is what I do,” Mandel explained, before miming the physical act in his chair. “So he bought me these swimming cables. I have these cables, which I tie onto my ankles. I attach them to whatever is on the side of the pool. And then he gave me these frying pan paddles and I swim for an hour and go nowhere. Now, here’s the thing, I got so lost in it. It’s really good ’cause the resistance of having these paddles. But I take them everywhere.”