CLOSE friends of Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty say their marriage was effectively over six months ago after drifting apart for an unexpected reason.
Since marrying in 2012 they’d both successfully juggled their busy careers with their equally hectic family lives as parents to two young children.
But all that seemed to change after they permanently moved back from the US, where Cat had a huge presenting career, to the UK.
And for the past two years , 54, has spent much of his time in where he hosts while Cat, 48, has been in fronting since March, 2024.
They made an official announcement and the couple, who have two young children together, stressed that there was no third party involved.
Last night a source close to the couple said: “ in March. They were living separate lives and it was very clear when she didn’t go to his mother’s funeral that month.
“She’d been living in to work on and he was back in - they only spent time together for the kids.
No major signs
“It’s a huge shock as everyone saw them as one of the most normal and down to earth couples in showbusiness and there were no major signs that anything was seriously wrong for some time.”
They have two children Milo, nine, and James, seven, and have a family home in North since Cat and Patrick moved back to the UK five years ago.
She had been enjoying a successful presenting career in for almost 14 years.
They said in a joint statement to the PA news agency: “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.”
Leaving America saw them swap a £3.75 million pad in Beverly Hills for a £4.9 million five-bedroom house in Hampstead.
Patrick, who comes from Co down in Northern Ireland and started his career as a stand-up comedian, began hosting The Late Late Show in from September 2023 in Dublin.
He also made his first feature and two TV documentaries, all based in Ireland and .
from March last year, a job which would see her spend four days a week fronting the flagship daytime TV show with co-host , 50.
But they returned five years ago with Cat saying in an interview: “We had always thought: ‘Our boys have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins they adore, and they adore them right back’.
“It’s such a special moment in time and you don’t get those times back.”
But Cat was under huge scrutiny last year when she took over hosting This Morning following the the previous year.
Despite she and being seen as a safe pair of hands the ratings dipped almost from the moment they arrived and only plateaued later in 2024.
West Bromwich-born Cat, who shot to fame on Saturday morning TV show SM:TV in the late Nineties with pals Ant & Dec, moved to the US in 2006 to forge a new career hosting ?
It was the same year that she divorced her first husband Mark Whelan after five years of marriage.
Cat and Patrick had met on the set of BBC One talent show Fame Academy in 2002 but it would be almost another decade before their friendship turned into a romance.
In an incredible gesture he rang her on her birthday from Ireland, then hopped on a plane to meet her in the US and celebrate her special day together.
I drop the ball all the time. I’m exactly the same as everybody else.
Cat Deeley
They went public with their relationship in 2011 and wed in the following year and the family resided in Los Angeles to be close to her work.
The move back to the UK was partly down to the family being caught up in a shooter incident in a local mall.
In an interview she recalled how Patrick called her from a restaurant after he hadn’t returned from playgroup with their son, Milo.
The TV presenter revealed that her son and her husband had been out for burgers when they were forced to lie behind the counter after a shooter scare.
Cat said: “As I was driving I began to see helicopters, news vans, firemen and Swat squads.
“Everyone was either told to lie behind the counter or pushed into the loos. People were screaming and crying. Then as they were all hiding, the FBI turned up with guns.
“Paddy kept Milo calm - he didn’t really know what was going on - and in the end it just turned out to be a suspect package but... Milo [was] three years old.
“Something like that has happened to him. The gun laws in America are crazy.”
She admitted the incident made her reconsider staying in the US.
Talking about trying to juggle her work life with family life last year she said: “I drop the ball all the time. I’m exactly the same as everybody else.
“I do the juggle - the juggle is real, the struggle is real. You know, we know, we’re all just trying to make everything work.”
