{"id":18084,"date":"2025-09-13T04:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/18084\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T04:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:35:09","slug":"why-friends-fear-its-about-to-get-tricky-in-the-divorce-of-cat-deeley-and-patrick-kielty-and-the-surprising-role-ben-shephard-is-playing-katie-hind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/18084\/","title":{"rendered":"Why friends fear it’s about to get tricky in the divorce of Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty – and the surprising role Ben Shephard is playing: KATIE HIND"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the \u00a35million \u2018doer-upper\u2019 purchased by Cat Deeley<\/a> and Patrick Kielty<\/a> after they returned to the UK from Los Angeles<\/a> five years ago, hoping to bring a touch of Hollywood to their new lives.<\/p>\n

Discreetly tucked away on a private road in the north London<\/a> suburb of Hampstead \u2013 an area beloved by A-listers such as Harry Styles<\/a>, Ricky Gervais<\/a> and Daniel Craig<\/a> \u2013 it was intended to be the couple\u2019s \u2018forever home\u2019.<\/p>\n

Next to the sprawling Heath, the dilapidated house had so much of what estate agents love to call \u2018potential\u2019. And both Cat and Patrick believed the tranquil spot was perfect for bringing up their two young sons.<\/p>\n

So they happily set to work back in 2023 to make the gloomy 1950s five-bedroom house into something their architect later described as \u2018inspired by… houses of the west coast of America which are familiar to the clients who spent many years living there\u2019.<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018Materials have also been introduced that connect the clients to their previous home in LA and to places that have significant memories for them.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Natural light was to flood the house, and ambitious plans submitted showed a new grand entrance, the demolition of a living-room mezzanine floor and a 4ft extension of bedrooms and a terrace.<\/p>\n

Celebrity touches came, too, with a planned \u2018nanny suite\u2019, his-and-her dressing rooms, a bar and a snug. In short, it was to be a slice of high-end California<\/a> in London.<\/p>\n

\"Patrick <\/p>\n

Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley in LA in 2015. Those who know the couple expect that it will be Cat, 48, who will remain in situ, along with their sons, aged nine and seven. Meanwhile, Patrick, 54, spends \u2018the majority of the week\u2019 in Ireland<\/p>\n

And, despite the significant renovation required \u2013 the construction work suggested, I\u2019m told, was equal to any house seen on Grand Designs \u2013 both Cat and Patrick were energised by the prospect, taking the view that the hard work and financial investment would be worth it.<\/p>\n

Now, though, the house that once held so much hope looks to be the centre of an impending battle between them, after the couple announced in the summer that they were to split after 12 years. \u2018Both Cat and Patrick have put an awful lot of time and effort into this house,\u2019 said one source. \u2018It has been at the centre of their lives for two years and means a lot to them both.<\/p>\n

\u2018But a divorce is now expected and they simply can\u2019t both live there. It is not like a couple selling a normal house. Blood, sweat and tears have gone into this. One of them is likely to stay there, while the other will walk away having put so much into it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Those who know the couple describe it as a \u2018hardcore passion project which at times has been very trying\u2019.<\/p>\n

Cat often shares updates with her This Morning colleagues and has documented the process on her social media. One video from February last year saw her admitting: \u2018I\u2019m not going to lie, I got a bit of a shock today. Not much house, lots of air,\u2019 and showed the home looking more like a shell.<\/p>\n

Patrick, too, has regaled the Saturday morning listeners of his Radio 5 Live programme with tales of building woes. Sadly, he may not get to enjoy the finished product.<\/p>\n

Those who know the couple expect that it will be Cat, 48, who will remain in situ, along with their sons aged nine and seven. It\u2019s just five miles from This Morning\u2019s headquarters in White City, west London, where she hosts the programme Monday to Thursday alongside Ben Shephard.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I\u2019m told that Patrick, 54, spends \u2018the majority of the week\u2019 in Ireland, where he presents the high-profile Late Late Show.<\/p>\n

His working pattern sees him fly to Dublin on a Tuesday to work on the programme for its Friday night recording, before jetting back to London on a Saturday after hosting his BBC radio show at the Corporation\u2019s Belfast studios at 9am.<\/p>\n

\u2018Essentially, Patrick isn\u2019t really at the family home much,\u2019 said one source. \u2018The Late Late Show pays him very well, but it\u2019s a huge commitment so he has to be in Ireland to write it and work on its content. It\u2019s Cat who is at home with the kids. That\u2019s how it will stay. It all feels a bit sad for Patrick after the work he has put into the house, but his priority is the children.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The couple happily set to work back in 2023 to make the gloomy 1950s five-bedroom house into something their architect later described as \u2018inspired by… houses of the west coast of America which are familiar to the clients who spent many years living there\u2019<\/p>\n

While the breakdown of any marriage is difficult, Cat and Patrick\u2019s split has emphasised how comparatively rootless his life now is. I\u2019m told: \u2018His life has changed so much in the space of just a few years. It wasn\u2019t long ago he was living in Los Angeles, which he liked \u2013 and now he\u2019s back in the UK and facing an existence in some kind of bachelor pad.<\/p>\n

\u2018He has a big, supportive family in Ireland, and that\u2019s where he lived before he moved to LA to be with Cat, so of course it\u2019s tempting for him to move back there.<\/p>\n

\u2018But his children have settled in London so he won\u2019t want to do anything to upset that. London wasn\u2019t where he really ever wanted to settle \u2013 but that\u2019s how his life has worked out.\u2019<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s separation was announced in July, just days after Cat went off on her six-week break from This Morning.<\/p>\n

They originally met in the early noughties while hosting the BBC show Fame Academy together, and were initially friends.<\/p>\n

Then, Patrick surprised Cat by flying from Belfast to Los Angeles for a celebratory brunch to mark her birthday, after realising he had fallen in love with her. Several months later, in September 2012, the pair wed at St Isidore\u2019s College church in Rome in September.<\/p>\n

Later, Patrick described the path to their relationship as \u2018first find a woman out of your league and then convince her she isn\u2019t\u2019.<\/p>\n

Beyond asking for privacy, and saying no other party was involved, neither have commented further on the split. But some who are familiar with the pair suggest all is not as amicable as they would like the public to believe.<\/p>\n

\"On <\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, Cat and her co-host Ben Shephard appeared at the National Television Awards, where they received the award for best daytime programme<\/p>\n

\u2018They were friends before they were husband and wife. They know one another so well,\u2019 says one friend.<\/p>\n

\u2018However, in recent years their lives have changed and gone in directions they wouldn\u2019t have necessarily chosen, and that\u2019s added some pressures.<\/p>\n

\u2018Both hope they can keep this all friendly but it\u2019s very hard.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told that some in Patrick\u2019s camp are \u2018rather pleased\u2019 at the negative press Cat received for not attending the funeral of his beloved mother Mary in March \u2013 an act which, the Daily Mail revealed at the time, left members of his close-knit family \u2018seething\u2019.<\/p>\n

Patrick was pictured looking bereft as he helped carry Mary\u2019s coffin through his home village of Dundrum, Co Down. A spokesperson for Cat told the Daily Mail: \u2018Cat remained at home to be there for her two young children before and after school on this very sad day.\u2019<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s hard to understate the significance of attending funerals in Ireland, and the disrespect which could be inferred from not paying one\u2019s respects. Cat\u2019s no-show understandably prompted much chatter that relations between the couple were strained for some time before their split.<\/p>\n

Worse for her was that her non-attendance was dragged up again after the announcement that she and Patrick had split.<\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s just say some of his friends were happy that Cat\u2019s squeaky clean reputation was questioned,\u2019 said one source.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cat has her reasons for not going to the funeral, which she\u2019s not going to discuss, but his family were very happy to speak out on it after they split and say how dreadful it was that she wasn\u2019t there. It has been very upsetting for Cat. She knows she had a good reason not to go.\u2019<\/p>\n

Others who know Patrick are keen to point out to me the sacrifices he made for Cat so she could pursue her successful career in the US.<\/p>\n

Despite the backbiting, Cat has continued on serenely \u2013 in public at least. This week she hit the town twice, confirming her status as the queen of British daytime television.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, she and her co-host Ben Shephard appeared at the National Television Awards, where they received the trophy for best daytime programme.<\/p>\n

Cat, who was wearing her wedding ring, appeared nervous as she took to the stage.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told the award was more than just a garland for her, but confirmation that her decision to move back to the UK after more than a decade in LA was the right one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018It has solidified her confidence in doing This Morning,\u2019 said one show insider. \u2018It\u2019s the first full year she has been hosting the show, and they won. Maybe it\u2019s a case of that old thing in life that when one thing is going well, something else isn\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>\n

Two days earlier, Cat \u2013 this time without her wedding ring \u2013 and Ben stepped out to join celebrations for ITV\u2019s 70th birthday at London\u2019s Guildhall.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told she very much enjoyed herself at the event on Monday, though she barely left Ben\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

My sources at ITV say happily married Ben is a source of great strength for her, a \u2018comfort blanket\u2019 as she navigates single life.<\/p>\n

One almost pities Shephard, however, because he has unexpectedly become a rather awkward go-between.<\/p>\n

Those who know him point out to me the irony that he is a long-standing friend of Patrick\u2019s and didn\u2019t meet Cat until the night before they began hosting This Morning together in March last year. In the event, I\u2019m told, sitting alongside her husband\u2019s friend \u2018felt right and safe\u2019 for her British TV return.<\/p>\n

Ben, meanwhile, is now certainly effusive about Cat, telling one interviewer recently that she has \u2018no airs and graces and you get the sense of this extraordinary, elegant, gorgeous, sophisticated, beautiful young woman’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Honestly, she\u2019s just like your mate down the pub. It\u2019s brilliant.’<\/p>\n

Such adoration is just what she needs at the moment. \u2018Despite Cat being super successful and strong, she has had wobbles,\u2019 said one source who knows her. \u2018While she had over a month away from This Morning after the split was announced, it\u2019s still hard.<\/p>\n

\u2018But Ben has been there to look after her. He has been the best friend a woman could ask for. Look how supportive he was to Kate Garraway [his former GMB co-presenter who nursed her late husband, Derek Draper, through terrible illness]. For Cat, to have Ben at work daily to cheer her up has been amazing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cat has got some lovely friends in London and her family are not far away but her life was in LA for so long and she doesn\u2019t have that support network around her now.<\/p>\n

\u2018You have to wonder, though, just what Patrick makes of all of that because Ben was his friend.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed, one can only imagine the turmoil of emotions Patrick feels. And while that \u2018forever home\u2019 is now said to be worth \u00a31.5million more than the couple paid for it \u2013 and that\u2019s before the renovations are completed \u2013 even the most amiable of ex-husbands, surveying the wreckage of their marriage, would find it all rather sticks in the craw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s the \u00a35million \u2018doer-upper\u2019 purchased by Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty after they returned to the UK from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8212,8211,539,93,61,60,99,116,9034,7076,1489],"class_list":{"0":"post-18084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ben-shephard","9":"tag-cat-deeley","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-patrick-kielty","17":"tag-this-morning","18":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}