What’s the weirdest rumour you’ve heard about yourself?” Cat Deeley asks Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. At 11am on a Saturday morning. On Britain’s most-watched children’s television programme. “Uhhh…” Slash stammers. “Getting a blow job in a bar?” Deeley hoots with nervous laughter, her life seeming to flash before her eyes, a parade of youngsters presumably confused off screen. “Moving swiftly on from that!” she cries, as she cleanly, impressively pivots to innocuous questions about touring and reptile bites.
This cult bit of CD:UK ephemera – still on YouTube, albeit in such ramshackle quality that it was presumably taped off live TV in 2000 via morse code – is a testament to the genius of Cat Deeley. CD:UK and SM:TV Live, the celebrated double bill of ITV kids’ shows that transformed Deeley into a shiny-haired icon of Noughties Britannia, was built on this kind of got-in-late-last-night naughtiness. She was a major part of it, gamely mucking in as one of “the beautiful Corrs” – the semi-regular send-up of the Irish pop group; poor brother Jim having to do with a bag over his head – or serving as the Jennifer Aniston figure in the show’s Friends spoof Chums. But she was also tasked with steering both shows, holding together a pair of programmes always within spitting distance of spiralling completely out of control. Slash or no Slash.
This week, Deeley took the reins of ITV’s far less dramatic This Morning, where the chance of Miriam Margoyles randomly discussing fellatio live on air isn’t quite as… well, admittedly that is also quite possible. Inevitable, even. But still – it’s a modicum less likely to happen on This Morning, which Deeley will host Monday through Wednesdays over the next coming weeks, alongside Rylan Clark and Craig Doyle.
Nothing has been confirmed, but it feels a bit like an audition – or at least a toe-dip into a permanent contract with the show; Holly Willoughby, who announced her exit in October, still needs a full-time replacement. Hiring Deeley wouldn’t just be a great move for the show, but it’d also be a godsend for ITV – seeing as Ruth and Eamonn presumably stood beneath a blood moon and hexed This Morning and everyone associated with it at some point in early 2022. How else to explain the show’s rapid, calamitous unravelling?
There is speculation from ITV circles that Deeley’s sunny professionalism may not be in keeping with the show’s brand – that she is “cold” or lacking in the mumsy warmth embodied by Willoughby and Philip Schofield. But that dynamic duo had become a gruesome twosome by the end of their run together and their apparent down-to-earth normality became something of a poisoned chalice. As soon as they demonstrated alleged bad behaviour, like maybe-or-maybe-not skipping the queue to watch the Queen lie in state, the British public turned on them. Deeley, in comparison, is more of a blank slate – do you have any real stance on her beyond polite agreeability?
When you really think about it, she’s simply a woman who is very good at her job. The ease with which Deeley presents live television is partly why any randomer thinks they can do it. She comes from a school of legitimately talented TV presenters, emerging alongside her SM:TV Live compatriots Ant and Dec, but also the likes of Edith Bowman and Zoe Ball – people with obvious onscreen charisma, who could simultaneously read autocues, listen to in-ear producers and skirt around technical chaos with such grace that we’d never spot it at home. You know those enamel-peeling episodes of The Apprentice where the budding entrepreneurs have to present live on a shopping channel? You know how it rapidly becomes a kind of brightly lit snuff film filled with dead air and word salad? TV presenting is hard work. Deeley makes it look painless.
The West Midlands-born, 5ft 9in Deeley entered the entertainment industry at 14, having competed for a modelling contract as part of the BBC series The Clothes Show. She didn’t win the contest but was signed by Storm Management anyway. Modelling proved to be a short-lived gig, with Deeley moving into TV presenting after she answered a casting call from MTV, which was looking for presenters with “regional accents”. After a year hosting the music show Hitlist UK, she was poached by ITV for SM:TV Live and became a star practically overnight.
Early years: Deeley with Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly on ‘SM:TV Live’ in 2000— (Ken McKay/Shutterstock)
Deeley was softer than the “ladettes” of the earlier Denise van Outen/Sara Cox era but with a sense of knowing cool that made her far more interesting to watch than, say, your average Blue Peter presenter. Sheer professionalism kept her out of the tabloids, too, with Deeley telling The Guardian in 2011 that she has always approached her industry with a degree of booksmarts and realism. “I’ve identified that the industry isn’t the same for women, so my whole thing now is to get into producing,” she said. “You can do one of two things. You can bury your head in the sand and believe what everyone tells you – that you will always be that young, that thin and that fabulous. Or you can use all the things you have – talent, contacts, knowledge – and do something different.”
Deeley quit SM:TV Live in 2002, followed by CD:UK in 2005, while continuing to present across UK television. If you’re wondering where Deeley has been in the years since – though you may have caught her hilariously sending up her own image in Peter Kay’s singing-contest spoof Britain’s Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice – the answer is America. Since 2006, Deeley has hosted the reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance, an opportunity that came her way just as she was looking for her next challenge; she had split from a PR executive in 2005 after five years of dating.
“Nothing gets you to mend your heart quicker than throwing yourself into work,” she told the Daily Mail. “When I came out here, I couldn’t dwell on the breakup because I had too many practical things to sort out – such as how do I set up a bank account, where’s the nearest supermarket and how do I go about taking my driving test?”
So You Think You Can Dance has long been one of those under-the-radar smashes, a show that rarely hits the headlines but has enjoyed a devoted fan base for years. The competition last aired in 2022 with its 17th season. For her work on the show, Deeley has received five Emmy nominations – for Best Reality TV Host – and universal acclaim from American critics. “She’s as gorgeous as [Project Runway host] Heidi Klum,” wrote Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “Funnier than [Dancing with the Stars’] Tom Bergeron, more professional than [American Idol’s] Ryan Seacrest, and wears necklaces more fashionable than [Survivor’s] Jeff Probst’s. More?! Well, just look at how pretty she is!”
Thanks to SYTYCD, Deeley has become one of America’s most recognisable onscreen faces. The gig also led to countless other hosting opportunities: in the US, she has presented or guest-presented everything from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The View to Good Day LA.
Loved up: Patrick Kielty and Deeley in September— (Getty)
In 2012, after nine months of dating, Deeley married the Irish comedian and presenter Patrick Kielty. They’d known each other for years – they co-hosted the BBC’s short-lived “aspiring musicians in a big mansion” reality show Fame Academy between 2002 and 2003 – but only discovered they shared romantic chemistry when they ran into each other in LA. He’d called her to wish her a happy birthday, and showed up unexpectedly to the Beverly Hills Hotel where she was having a party. It was Kielty swooping in charmingly, Deeley later said, that made her “slightly [fall] in love with him”.
Deeley and Kielty went on to have two children together: Milo, seven, and James, five. They stayed in Los Angeles together until 2020, when they moved back to London, inspired – Kielty has said – by their horror at the idea of raising their children amid “live shooter drills”. (These are when schools require their students to be trained in how to flee-slash-survive a mass shooting.) “It’s something you would never want them to go through,” Kielty told The Daily Telegraph.
Since returning to the UK, Deeley has worked consistently on the presenter’s circuit, judging The Great British Menu, and (somewhat predictably) filling in for Lorraine Kelly while she’s been off on one of her many, many holidays. This Morning, though, would be her most high-profile venture in years if she makes it a permanent job. They’d be lucky to have her. This is a woman who expertly interviewed Christina Aguilera at her diva prime – Gino D’Acampo will comparatively be a breeze.
