It’s the £5million ‘doer-upper’ purchased by Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty after they returned to the UK from Los Angeles five years ago, hoping to bring a touch of Hollywood to their new lives.
Discreetly tucked away on a private road in the north London suburb of Hampstead – an area beloved by A-listers such as Harry Styles, Ricky Gervais and Daniel Craig – it was intended to be the couple’s ‘forever home’.
Next to the sprawling Heath, the dilapidated house had so much of what estate agents love to call ‘potential’. And both Cat and Patrick believed the tranquil spot was perfect for bringing up their two young sons.
So they happily set to work back in 2023 to make the gloomy 1950s five-bedroom house into something their architect later described as ‘inspired by… houses of the west coast of America which are familiar to the clients who spent many years living there’.
He added: ‘Materials have also been introduced that connect the clients to their previous home in LA and to places that have significant memories for them.’
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.
Celebrity touches came, too, with a planned ‘nanny suite’, his-and-her dressing rooms, a bar and a snug. In short, it was to be a slice of high-end California in London.
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 ‘the majority of the week’ in Ireland
And, despite the significant renovation required – the construction work suggested, I’m told, was equal to any house seen on Grand Designs – both Cat and Patrick were energised by the prospect, taking the view that the hard work and financial investment would be worth it.
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. ‘Both Cat and Patrick have put an awful lot of time and effort into this house,’ said one source. ‘It has been at the centre of their lives for two years and means a lot to them both.
‘But a divorce is now expected and they simply can’t 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.’
Those who know the couple describe it as a ‘hardcore passion project which at times has been very trying’.
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: ‘I’m not going to lie, I got a bit of a shock today. Not much house, lots of air,’ and showed the home looking more like a shell.
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.
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’s just five miles from This Morning’s headquarters in White City, west London, where she hosts the programme Monday to Thursday alongside Ben Shephard.
Meanwhile, I’m told that Patrick, 54, spends ‘the majority of the week’ in Ireland, where he presents the high-profile Late Late Show.
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’s Belfast studios at 9am.
‘Essentially, Patrick isn’t really at the family home much,’ said one source. ‘The Late Late Show pays him very well, but it’s a huge commitment so he has to be in Ireland to write it and work on its content. It’s Cat who is at home with the kids. That’s 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.’
The couple happily set to work back in 2023 to make the gloomy 1950s five-bedroom house into something their architect later described as ‘inspired by… houses of the west coast of America which are familiar to the clients who spent many years living there’
While the breakdown of any marriage is difficult, Cat and Patrick’s split has emphasised how comparatively rootless his life now is. I’m told: ‘His life has changed so much in the space of just a few years. It wasn’t long ago he was living in Los Angeles, which he liked – and now he’s back in the UK and facing an existence in some kind of bachelor pad.
‘He has a big, supportive family in Ireland, and that’s where he lived before he moved to LA to be with Cat, so of course it’s tempting for him to move back there.
‘But his children have settled in London so he won’t want to do anything to upset that. London wasn’t where he really ever wanted to settle – but that’s how his life has worked out.’
The couple’s separation was announced in July, just days after Cat went off on her six-week break from This Morning.
They originally met in the early noughties while hosting the BBC show Fame Academy together, and were initially friends.
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’s College church in Rome in September.
Later, Patrick described the path to their relationship as ‘first find a woman out of your league and then convince her she isn’t’.
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.
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
‘They were friends before they were husband and wife. They know one another so well,’ says one friend.
‘However, in recent years their lives have changed and gone in directions they wouldn’t have necessarily chosen, and that’s added some pressures.
‘Both hope they can keep this all friendly but it’s very hard.’
I’m told that some in Patrick’s camp are ‘rather pleased’ at the negative press Cat received for not attending the funeral of his beloved mother Mary in March – an act which, the Daily Mail revealed at the time, left members of his close-knit family ‘seething’.
Patrick was pictured looking bereft as he helped carry Mary’s coffin through his home village of Dundrum, Co Down. A spokesperson for Cat told the Daily Mail: ‘Cat remained at home to be there for her two young children before and after school on this very sad day.’
But it’s hard to understate the significance of attending funerals in Ireland, and the disrespect which could be inferred from not paying one’s respects. Cat’s no-show understandably prompted much chatter that relations between the couple were strained for some time before their split.
Worse for her was that her non-attendance was dragged up again after the announcement that she and Patrick had split.
‘Let’s just say some of his friends were happy that Cat’s squeaky clean reputation was questioned,’ said one source.
‘Cat has her reasons for not going to the funeral, which she’s 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’t there. It has been very upsetting for Cat. She knows she had a good reason not to go.’
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.
Despite the backbiting, Cat has continued on serenely – in public at least. This week she hit the town twice, confirming her status as the queen of British daytime television.
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.
Cat, who was wearing her wedding ring, appeared nervous as she took to the stage.
I’m 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.
‘It has solidified her confidence in doing This Morning,’ said one show insider. ‘It’s the first full year she has been hosting the show, and they won. Maybe it’s a case of that old thing in life that when one thing is going well, something else isn’t.’
Two days earlier, Cat – this time without her wedding ring – and Ben stepped out to join celebrations for ITV’s 70th birthday at London’s Guildhall.
I’m told she very much enjoyed herself at the event on Monday, though she barely left Ben’s side.
My sources at ITV say happily married Ben is a source of great strength for her, a ‘comfort blanket’ as she navigates single life.
One almost pities Shephard, however, because he has unexpectedly become a rather awkward go-between.
Those who know him point out to me the irony that he is a long-standing friend of Patrick’s and didn’t meet Cat until the night before they began hosting This Morning together in March last year. In the event, I’m told, sitting alongside her husband’s friend ‘felt right and safe’ for her British TV return.
Ben, meanwhile, is now certainly effusive about Cat, telling one interviewer recently that she has ‘no airs and graces and you get the sense of this extraordinary, elegant, gorgeous, sophisticated, beautiful young woman’.
‘Honestly, she’s just like your mate down the pub. It’s brilliant.’
Such adoration is just what she needs at the moment. ‘Despite Cat being super successful and strong, she has had wobbles,’ said one source who knows her. ‘While she had over a month away from This Morning after the split was announced, it’s still hard.
‘But 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.
‘Cat 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’t have that support network around her now.
‘You have to wonder, though, just what Patrick makes of all of that because Ben was his friend.’
Indeed, one can only imagine the turmoil of emotions Patrick feels. And while that ‘forever home’ is now said to be worth £1.5million more than the couple paid for it – and that’s before the renovations are completed – even the most amiable of ex-husbands, surveying the wreckage of their marriage, would find it all rather sticks in the craw.
