Patrick Kielty’s make-or-break flight to Cat Deeley before taxi driver’s cheeky question

Patrick Kielty once shared the moment a taxi driver quizzed him about his relationship with Cat Deeley after a grand romantic gesture that involved flying across the globe

A taxi driver once cheekily suggested to Patrick Kielty that his relationship with Cat Deeley might not work out following a make-or-break journey.

The celebrity pair announced last week they had separated after tying the knot in 2012 in Rome. During a chat on Loose Women three years following their wedding day, The Late Late Show host revealed how a cabbie once questioned their romance. Ruth Langsford told the Northern Irish funnyman, 54, that his love story with Cat, 48, was “lovely” because they had been friends for ages beforehand.

When asked how that developed into something romantic, Patrick explained: “There was a moment, we always used to keep in contact, it was her birthday, and she was in Beverly Hills and I was in Dundrum (County Down).

“And obviously LA are eight hours behind, it was around tea time with her. I texted her happy birthday from a little Irish pub. It was around two-o-clock in the morning, approaching closing time.

“And she said, ‘It is just a shame you are not in LA because I’m having a lunch tomorrow’ – so I said I will be there.

“So I got up at five, jumped on a six-o-clock flight from Ireland, got into Heathrow at seven, and jumped on a 20 to 10 flight, got in at quarter past one, walked into the Beverly Hills Hotel. I said ‘hi’, she fell off the chair, and we have been together ever since.”

Nevertheless, shortly before stunning Cat with his romantic gesture, a taxi driver quipped about leaving the engine running, just in case his proposal didn’t go to plan.

He remembered: “But there was a brilliant moment where the taxi driver pulled up, the taxi driver from the airport, and I was telling him the story of why I was coming and he pulled up outside the hotel, and he said, ‘Sir, would you like me to wait for you?'”

Cat, who has been fronting This Morning alongside Ben Shephard, subsequently resided in LA with Patrick until the couple, together with their sons, now eight and six, relocated to the UK in 2020.

And while Cat has been based in London with her presenting commitments, Patrick has spent the past two years frequently travelling to Dublin for his weekly RTE programme.

In a joint statement to the PA news agency last week, Cat and Patrick said: “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.”