Cat tells how romance was in the air with Kielty
CAT Deeley has revealed how her husband Patrick Kielty turned their friendship to romance by flying all the way from Belfast to Los Angeles to have brunch.
The TV presenter (44) told of how Dundrum native Patrick won her over on the Made By Mammas podcast, where she discussed marriage, motherhood and how gun culture in the US contributed to the family’s decision to move back to the UK after 14 years in California.
Cat also shared the fair ytale beginning to her relationship with the 49-year-old comic, whose businessman father Jack was shot dead in Dundrum by loyalists in 1988.
After meeting while working on talent show Fame Academy, the pair remained friends and held a tradition of annual phone calls on the eve of each of their birthdays. But their friendship turned to romance after Kielty made a grand romantic gesture — which began with a phonecall from a pub.
“He was at a pub in Ireland and he rang me,” Cat explained.
“Bear in mind it was probably about 2 o’clock in the morning because they’d had a lock-in.”
When Cat told him she was
having a birthday brunch with friends at the Beverly Hills Hotel, she said: “He said, ‘I’ll see you there!’ I was like, there’s no way!
“He went home, set his alarm for five, got up, went to the airport, flew from Belfast to London, then jumped on the first plane from London to LA, got in a cab, told the cabbie on his way from the airport what he was doing, and the driver was literally like, ‘ do you want me to wait for you?!’
“He walked in, dropped his bags at the concierge, walked in and came and sat down for lunch. It knocked my socks off a little bit!”
The romantic gesture was the beginning of their relationship and they married in a secret ceremony in Rome in 2012.
Talking about having children with Patrick, Cat said: “I’d always wanted to have kids and he had, too. We just didn’t want to be anxious about it. It was like, ‘OK let’s just see how it goes’.”
Patrick has spoken previously about how he wooed Cat by showing her around his native Co Down.
“I remember it was May and the bluebells were out. Cat had been living in LA at that time and you could see she was like, ‘Wow’.”