Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos share heartbreaking news: 'It's grief'

Kelly Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos, are dealing with grief in the wake of a "toughest" call they were forced to make as a married couple.

In the Wednesday episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, the couple revealed that their beloved dog Chewie died on Tuesday, February 4, at the age of 17.

The pet owners opened their podcast episode with the heartbreaking news, "We had a rough day yesterday. We had to say goodbye to Chewie yesterday."

After putting down the white and brown Shih Tzu, they disclosed that the pet had stopped eating for a couple of days and had been eating less and less for the past few weeks.

"She was extremely dehydrated and had some neurological stuff going down," Consuelos, 53, disclosed per a vet diagnosis after he visited their apartment to check up on Chewie. "And you think, 'Okay, I'm doing the right thing, this is going to be not easy but...' It's probably one of the toughest things we've had to do as a married couple."

The All My Children alum emphasised that only pet owners can understand their pain and loss as they mourn the death of their furry pal.

"It's grief. It really is grief," he added. "But knowing that we did the right thing because it was just going to be really, really, really bad over the next few days for her."

For the unversed, Ripa, 54, and Consuelos adopted Chewie after the actress first met the dog during an adoption segment on Live.