This Morning presenter Cat Deeley and her husband Patrick Kielty announced their split this week after more than a decade of marriage. The couple share two children
Cat Deeley has shared a poignant memory from before her luxurious wedding to Patrick Kielty. The TV presenters announced their separation earlier this week, bringing an end to over a decade of marriage.
This Morning host Cat, 48, and Northern Irish presenter Patrick, 54, first met while co-presenting BBC’s Fame Academy in 2002, going on to host two series of the show together that year.
The couple exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony in Rome in September 2012, just nine months after they started dating. The ceremony, attended by 100 guests, was conducted by Belfast-based priest Father Gary Donegan.
In a previous interview, Cat revealed that her grandfather was unable to attend the destination wedding due to poor health. Although the former couple recorded the ceremony for him, he sadly passed away before he could watch it.
When asked about her “biggest regret” by Grazia magazine in 2017, Cat opened up about the heartbreak, saying: “He died before he saw it. The good thing is we love it and, after two glasses of wine, Patrick and I put it on like a pair of losers.”
The couple’s fans were shocked when details of their wedding emerged, especially since Patrick had denied being engaged just months before they tied the knot. Cat had already chosen her wedding dress before Patrick had even popped the question.
During a 2021 appearance on Lorraine, she revealed: “Mine [wedding dress] is in the cupboard somewhere but I’d actually already got my dress before… It wasn’t because I was feeling lucky, I promise! It was a couture dress from Alexander McQueen – a shift white dress.”
She continued: “It was so beautiful that I just couldn’t not buy it and I hadn’t even met Paddy at that stage. I literally put it in my cupboard and I was like I’ll wear it to something… I’ll wear it to some awards. There you go.”
Cat and Patrick have two children together. In a statement announcing their separation this week, they said: “We have taken the decision to end our marriage and are now separated. There is no other party involved.
“We will continue to be united as loving parents to our children and would therefore kindly ask for our family privacy to be respected. There will be no further comment.”
Cat’s rise to fame began when she presented SM:TV Live alongside Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. She met Patrick in 2002 on Fame Academy, but they didn’t start dating until almost a decade later.
RTE presenter Patrick claimed he won Cat over with a grand romantic gesture. In an interview with The Daily Mail, he said: “Unless someone was stupid enough to get on a plane, nothing would have happened.”
Patrick explained: “Cat was in LA and I was in Northern Ireland, so I texted her to wish her a happy birthday. When she said she was having a birthday lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel, I said I’d be there. She told me to go to sleep as I was drunk.
“That was 2am. I got up at 5am, went to Belfast airport for 6am, got the 7.15am flight to Heathrow, landed at 8.30am, took off again at 9.40am and arrived in LA at 1.15pm.”
The couple had previously resided in the US while Cat hosted So You Think You Can Dance, but they relocated back to the UK in 2020.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
