Kelly Ripa: My Husband Pays Me to Keep My Clothes On

Kelly Ripa advised one couple on NBC's The Marriage Ref to get a stripper pole. But Ripa herself needs no such encouragement to spice things up at home – in fact, quite the opposite.

"He actually pays me money to keep my clothes on!" Ripa, 39, joked to PEOPLE of husband Mark Consuelos at the Point Honors benefit on Monday night in New York, which she co-hosted with Bravo's Andy Cohen.

"I'm actually given money to put on a parka. 'Put your parka on! Here's another dollar. Put on that hat!' "

Consuelos doesn't agree – "Yeah, right," he says – but he isn't about to settle the argument, or any of their arguments, with a marriage ref of their own. "She always wins," he explains. "There's no use in having one!"

But as fearless as Ripa may be behind closed doors with her hubby, public speaking is a another animal.

"This is much scarier for me," the Live With Regis & Kelly co-host said of her duties at the gala, which honors lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders. "I always say I feel like the live morning show is just my living room and I'm just having coffee. Being at these important events where it matters what I'm saying – it's to raise money, and you want to give people a good show but still get the message out there."