‘Riverdale’ Casts Kelly Ripa as Hiram Lodge’s Mistress

It looks like Riverdale will be recruiting a familiar face to bring one Season 3 plotline to life.

Kelly Ripa has been cast as Mrs. Mulwray, a woman who is the alleged mistress of Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos). There is, of course, a bit of irony to this, as Ripa and Consuelos are married in real life, after meeting on All My Children. Ripa broke the news of her Riverdale role on her Instagram account, joking that she’s spent “23 years of auditioning for a role [she] was born to play.”

According to a statement from The CW to Us Weekly, Mrs. Mulwray will be “confident and tough” and “a beautiful, icy, femme fatale who gets caught up in a conspiracy that’s much bigger than she initially realized.”

This marks the second family member of Consuelos to make their way onto Riverdale this season, with his and Ripa’s son Michael Consuelos playing a young Hiram in tomorrow’s “The Midnight Club” flashback episode.

Despite making his presence known throughout Riverdale‘s sophomore season, Hiram has not played as large of a role in what we’ve seen of Season 3 so far. Even then, he did frame Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) for murder (which has led to him being coerced into a fight club in juvie), and he does continue to have a hold on the town’s inner workings.

“I like to say he’s like Jaws,” Consuelos said of the role at the beginning of Season 2. “You didn’t see him. You knew he was there. There’s danger there. His presence is felt.”

“He loves loves loves his family and he’s fiercely protective over all of that and anything that has anything to do or comes into contact with his family,” Consuelos continued. “Also, he probably loves power a little bit too. He’s enamored with that.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.