The odds of keeping a celebrity marriage together are vanishingly small. Now, to the list of famous couples whose union ended in divorce we must add This Morning host Cat Deeley and fellow presenter Patrick Kielty, who announced their split in July.
It’s clearly an emotional time for the pair, as evidenced by Kielty’s tearful speech last week during his first TV appearance since the news broke. The Northern Irish presenter, 54, became choked up on RTE’s Late Late Show as he thanked viewers for “all the love and support that you guys have sent my way”. He continued: “One of the greatest joys of hosting this show is that you’re never alone.”
But where did it all go wrong for the well-liked hosting couple? Kielty and Deeley, 48, who have two sons (Milo, nine, and James, seven), had a sweet, slow-burn love story: the pair met back in 2002 when they co-hosted the BBC’s Fame Academy and became good friends.
A decade later Kielty made a grand gesture, flying from Belfast to Los Angeles to surprise her at her birthday brunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Deeley said on the Made By Mammas podcast in 2020 that his romantic appearance “knocked my socks off”.
The couple married in a secret ceremony in September 2012 at St Isidore’s College in Rome, with just close friends and family present, a few months after going public with their relationship in May.
But although the pair shared a similar family and professional background, with the Birmingham-born Deeley initially following a similar trajectory to Kielty, by this point her star was on the rise, and public comments made by him made it seem that the discrepancy in their careers was an area of tension in their marriage.
Deeley had started out modelling and then moved into children’s TV in 1998, hosting SM:TV Live, before graduating to programmes like Stars in Their Eyes, Fame Academy, and the Brit Awards. But in 2006, her life changed dramatically when she was invited to host the second series of American TV dancing competition So You Think You Can Dance, after its original presenter, Lauren Sánchez (the future Mrs Bezos) became pregnant.
Deeley hosted children’s TV show SM:TV Live with Ant and Dec – Getty
The show, created by American Idol producers Nigel Lythgoe (also one of the judges) and Simon Fuller, was a sizeable hit for broadcaster Fox, and was also critically celebrated: the show won nine Emmy Awards during its run. The programme catapulted Deeley to fame in America and gave her a lavish Hollywood lifestyle, including a £3.8m mansion in Beverly Hills with a pool and spa, and netting her an estimated £15m fortune.
She also received other lucrative opportunities on American TV, including guest-hosting talk show The View, covering the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales for CNN in 2011, and making a cameo appearance on The Simpsons.
Kielty, meanwhile, had a more modest career spanning both presenting and comedy, with the former encompassing programmes like Love Island and guest-hosting on The One Show. He did have a brief chance to match Deeley’s Hollywood success: in 2004 he hosted a pilot for an American version of Deal or No Deal. However, Canadian comedian Howie Mandel ultimately got the job instead.
That meant that when this couple reconnected, it made sense for Kielty to upend his life and move out to LA to join Deeley, supporting her glittering – and highly paid – career. However, that power imbalance seemed to affect the way that they took decisions in their marriage.
Speaking on The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan podcast in July 2023, Kielty revealed: “For a long time I genuinely thought I was in a 50/50 partnership. Then you realise you’re actually a junior shareholder in a 50/50 partnership. You go, ‘I thought we were 50/50? Why do you seem to have more shares?’”
The couple on a night out in Beverly Hills, California, in 2012 (the year they married) – Getty
In a 2022 interview with Metro, Kielty had joked that the key to life was to “find someone out of your league and convince them they aren’t”. This quip may have had the ring of truth. It must have been challenging for Kielty to be out in America, where he is relatively unknown, and see Deeley getting so much fame and adulation.
In 2023 Kielty became the new host of Irish institution The Late Late Show, which he described as “the honour of a lifetime”. Yet it wasn’t Kielty’s career that decided where the couple and their two children would live.
Instead, it was Deeley who made the decision to move back to the UK from LA, Kielty said on The Mid•Point. He explained: “Because Cat was the one with a successful career out there, she was the one who chose to leave that at the right time, and that’s a decision that she made and only she can make.”
The couple bought a £4.9m house in Hampstead, north London. Deeley told Lorraine in 2020 that moving home meant her sons could see their “grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins that they adore”. However, Kielty said on the podcast that London “will never really be home”: “In my head, I still live in a little village in County Down, even though I haven’t lived there full-time for 30 years.” Instead of moving home, he found himself doing a weekly commute from London to Dublin to present The Late Late Show.
Deeley also eclipsed him, once again, with another big career opportunity: in 2024 she and Ben Shephard became the new hosts of ITV’s This Morning. It has given her a new level of celebrity in her home country, with viewers poring over her fashion choices – including, last week, her covetable autumnal selection of an M&S pleated satin skirt from the brand’s new season collection (the skirt has since sold out).
In 2024, Deeley was offered another big career opportunity as the new host of ITV’s This Morning with Ben Shephard – ITV
Deeley admitted on This Morning in 2024 that her punishing presenting schedule meant she and Kielty were sleeping in separate bedrooms during the week, and, with the addition of Kielty’s commute, a source told the Daily Mail that the couple were essentially “living separate lives”.
It’s a far cry from Deeley’s warm words about her own parents’ marriage. Speaking to the Mirror in 2010, she said: “My mum and dad have been married for over 30 years and they’ve had a great relationship. But that success is really hard to emulate. When you’ve seen something work so brilliantly, you almost don’t want to settle for it not being fantastic.”
However, it seemed neither she nor Kielty wanted to give up their prestigious presenting jobs, however difficult it made their relationship. Kielty’s family was reportedly hurt when Deeley didn’t attend his mother’s funeral in County Down earlier this year – though a spokesman for Deeley said she remained at home to look after their two children. In July the couple announced in a joint statement that they had decided to end their marriage, adding “There is no other party involved”.
Deeley has since returned to presenting This Morning, and last week she was smiling as usual on the red carpet for the National Television Awards, channelling Hollywood glamour in a £5,160 emerald-green Oscar de la Renta gown. This Morning regained its NTA crown, following a two-year gap, winning the Daytime Programme category.
Last week at the NTAs Deeley was smiling with her team as This Morning regained its crown – Getty
As for Kielty, a source told the Daily Mail that he might be tempted to move back to Ireland now, where he has “a big, supportive family”. However his children have settled in London “so he won’t want to do anything to upset that”.
But following his split from Deeley, he no longer has to feel like a junior partner in their marriage. Her career might well continue to skyrocket, whether through This Morning or other job offers, however Kielty has the chance to build his own life and career – out of her shadow.
