Kelly: Live & Uncensored

By Cortney Pellettieri

Kelly RipaShe's said bye-bye to Regis, hello to being mom of a teen, and "Not now" to getaways with her husband. Here, Kelly Ripa tells how she powers through her days, what keeps her so slim - and the one question that keeps her up at night.

What she misses about Regis: His funny stories. He's a great storyteller. There was always something going wrong in his life, and that was always very funny. Nobody has luck that bad.

On parenting with husband Mark Consuelos: He's more apt to dole out discipline, but my punishments are real. I'll take away my son's iPod if he's fresh. When we're traveling, Mark will say, "If you don't stop, I'm going to have the pilot turn this plane around." I'll whisper to him, "They know you can't do that. The airline isn't going to turn this plane around because you're punishing the kids. You need to come up with something real."

Related: The Other Side of Kelly Ripa

On her sleeping habits: I typically go to bed at 1:00 A.M. Then I wake up around 3:30 for some reason. I get up and check on the kids. Mark will say, "Why are you awake?" I'm not sure. I'll check my e-mail. I have a friend who's an insomniac, so there's usually an e-mail from her that I'll respond to. Once I do that, I'm in trouble, because she could respond, and then we're communicating in the middle of the night. I turn on the TV and try to find an infomercial that is very repetitive to put me to sleep. Then I usually get up around 6:00 A.M. and get the kids ready for school and get them fed. Five hours of sleep a night is where I am.

On homework help: With our 14-year-old, we're not involved anymore because he's outclassed us. We can no longer help him. Our son's schoolwork looks crazy to us. I feel terrible for him, because he should have parents who can help him. I look at him and have to say, "I'm sorry, I'm a talk show host; I just don't know how to do that."

Related: Kelly Ripa: Fab at 40

How she keeps her cool: I deep-breathe, and I do a lot of yoga. There's no real manual on being a parent. There's no real manual on being a wife. I keep reminding myself, My mother did all this, only she never got to leave the house. OK, I can do this. We're all learning on our own learning curve.

Read more of our interview with Kelly Ripa!

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