Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty have been married for almost 12 years but first met in the early noughties while working on Fame Academy – but not all of the new This Morning host’s love stories were so uncomplicated.

Before settling down with her husband Patrick Kielty, This Morning’s new host Cat Deeley had a rollercoaster love life.

This Morning confirmed today that Cat and Ben Shephard will be joining as full-time presenters.

This follows months of rumours that the pair would take over from stand-in hosts who filled in after Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby left the show last year.

TV couple Cat and Patrick have been happily married for nearly 12 years.

They first met in the early 2000s while working on Fame Academy. Although they became good friends, it took 10 years for romance to bloom between them.

After just nine months of dating, they tied the knot. However, not all of Cat’s love stories were so straightforward.

Cat, aged 47, experienced heartbreak with her first husband and then again with her actor ex-boyfriend.

Patrick, aged 53, has always maintained that “nothing went on” in the early days as they were both in relationships when they first met. He did admit, however, that there was a “wee vibe there.” The pair remained friends during Cat’s five-year marriage to PR businessman Mark Whelan.

Patrick and Cat tied-the-knot in 2012(Image: PA)

After her divorce in 2006, the SMTV presenter moved from Birmingham to LA for a fresh start as the host of So You Think You Can Dance on American TV. She started dating Jack Huston, who starred in the third Twilight film Eclipse, in September 2008. However, their romance ended after two years.

At the age of 33, her spokesperson confirmed that she decided to break up with the then 27 year old actor due to “work commitments”. In a later chat with Red Magazine, the presenter shared that she was happy being single after a tough time and revealed how a relationship with an unnamed man left her feeling like a ‘shell’ of her former self.

“You are so much better off on your own than with the wrong person,” she stated, before advising other women: “I’d say to any woman, get out of the bad relationship that’s turning you into a shell of your former self. Learn from it, and get out.”

“Then wait: enjoy yourself and your friends because, when what you want comes along, you’ll spot it.” And it soon came along, in the form of a grand gesture by fellow presenter Patrick, who flew across the world to win her over.

Cat Deeley with ex husband Jack Huston(Image: Getty Images)

Remembering one of her best-ever birthdays that ‘changed everything’, Cat told The Late Late Show’s Ryan Tubridy in 2020: “There was a night where it was the day before my birthday – I can’t even remember what birthday it was now! It was 30-something – he called me and he spoke to me on the phone.

“He said, ‘Oh, what are you doing for your birthday? I’m just ringing to say happy birthday’. I said, ‘Oh, we’re going to the Beverly Hills Hotel. We’re just going to have a late brunch; it’s going to be very civilised. It’s a shame you’re not here, otherwise, you could come”.’

At that time, Patrick was in a pub in County Down, but he quickly went to the airport to catch a 7am flight to LA for the next day. At her birthday brunch, Cat admitted she nearly fell off her chair when Patrick walked in, confessing at this moment she “slightly fell in love with him”.

The couple got married in 2012 after dating for just nine months. They said their vows at the beautiful St Isidore’s College in Rome. However, Cat confessed she was so uninterested in wedding details that she let Patrick take over planning their very “chilled-out ceremony”.

Speaking to Closer after the wedding, she said: “Patrick went and tried the food and did all that, I never even saw the place where I got married before I got married, that’s how uninvolved I was.” She did have one requirement for the special day, however, stating that the guests dressed up to the nines.

“I get to dress up and have really special occasions all the time, so to me, that was the most exciting thing to happen,” she shared. After their wedding, the couple welcomed sons, Milo, eight, and James, six.

Ahead of their son James’s arrival, Cat shared with the Mirror a while ago: “I would love some more. But I have got to get on with it if I do. When you go for your check-ups they call you a ‘geriatric mum’. That is the terminology they use, I swear.”

Both Cat and Patrick like to keep things hidden when it comes to their personal lives, but there are times when their children feature in fun photos on Cat’s Instagram. Back in 2022, she revealed some comical tales about motherhood to The Ellen Show, sharing that her children tended to be “mischievous” refusing to keep their clothes on. The audience found this highly amusing as she joked around saying: “It’s fine now but not when they are 17 and doing it in supermarkets.”

The family currently live in an impressive £4.9 million home from the ’50s, located in the beautiful area of Hampstead. Their neighbour happens to be none other than celebrity Harry Styles. In 2020, the family decided to move back to the UK from sunny California after a frightening shopping mall shooting incident involving Patrick and their son.

Cat recalled the horrifying experience at the Century City Mall in LA when FBI agents had shoppers hide as there was a shooter present.

Speaking to You magazine in 2020, Cat said: “They shut down the centre. I got a call from Paddy, saying, ‘They’re taking us out through the fire exits but nobody can get to their car. If we walk to a junction, can you come and get us?’ He wanted to keep Milo calm, so I didn’t understand the enormity of what was happening.”

The mum-of-two remembered a scary time when she saw helicopters, vans, firemen, and SWAT teams while driving. She shared with the paper that it was ‘terrifying’ and ‘fear’ played a role in their choice to move back home. She also felt worried when she visited American schools for her child Milo because the children learn what to do if there is a shooter there.

“The danger suddenly becomes a reality,” she explained.