Kelly Ripa's Sister Has Vanished From The Spotlight: What Happened To Linda?
Kelly Ripa doesn't come from a showbiz family, but she opened the doors for other family members to follow suit. The first one was her sister, Linda Ripa, who followed in her sister's footsteps and pursued a career in acting and modeling. But her aspirations were cut short by tragedy, and she retreated from the spotlight. In the summer of 1999, Linda was in a near-fatal car accident that put a definitive end to her modeling days. But she was able to rise up and become a dedicated mother and author.
Then 26, Linda was seven months pregnant with her first child when the driver, who was drunk, hit her car head-on in Northeast Philadelphia. In addition to breaking several bones, she suffered a fractured pelvis that put her unborn son in a coma. About a month later, Sergio-Giuseppe, seen below, was born nearly two months premature, but healthy. "We don't know how it happened, but it did," Linda told The New York Times in 2002. Because she spent the following year bedridden, she turned to drawing and telling stories to Kelly's oldest son, Michael Consuelos, to pass the time.
Three years later, Linda became a published author with the release of the children's book "The Ladybug Blues." And Kelly couldn't be more proud, drawing inspiration from Linda's resilience from then on. "Every day of my life that I feel like I'm going to complain about something small ... I think of my sister," Kelly said (via Hello!). Linda may not have become famous like her big sister, but she became an author and proud mother.
Linda Ripa is a mother of three and activist
Linda Ripa's devastating accident changed her life in almost every way. She lost her career, her mobility, and her ability to move through life without pain. But she continued to fulfill different dreams, refusing to let the tragedy define who she was. "Though I had a career, I had always wanted, from when I was a girl, to be a mommy," Linda, who went on to have two more children after Sergio, said in The New York Times interview. And she developed new passions. "Now I have a new career, writing and drawing," she shared.
Life wouldn't be the same, but it would be worthwhile all the same. "It will be a much slower-paced life and I have several operations to go. But I am here with my family and it gives me inspiration every day. Sometimes you just have to make tragedy work for you," she said. Linda also wouldn't let the tragedy be in vain. She and Kelly Ripa, who was deeply affected by the sad event, became involved with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), with the "Live with Kelly and Mark" star having previously acted as a chairwoman for the organization.
They may not have been able to prevent Linda's accident, but they would do what they could to help prevent others from going through what they did. "I am hoping to prevent a situation that alters the life of a family the way my family's life was altered," Kelly told USA Today in 2001.