CAT DEELEY is back – after vanishing from our screens nearly 20 years ago.
The mum of two is tipped to take over from Holly Willoughby on This Morning after hosting the show for three days last week, with fans loving her happy, relaxed style.
Cat, 47, could prove the saviour of the programme, which has been in turmoil ever since Holly quit just months after Phillip Schofield was axed for having an affair with a much younger assistant.
Delighted viewers said having Cat back on the box was “comforting”, and insisted that she and co-host Rylan Clark had “breathed new life” into the crisis-hit show.
One gushed: “I’ve gone back 20 year seeing Cat on my screen. It was the best for a long time!”
Sources at ITV claimed producers had been keen to get Cat on the sofa “for a while” after Holly quit last month amid an alleged kidnap plot.
One said: “She takes live TV in her stride and is really witty and personable with guests.
“She’s comfortable interviewing both pop stars and politicians.
“Cat would be a safe captain to steady the ship.”
It has even been rumoured ITV might try out her comedian husband Patrick Kielty, 52, in the hope they could become the new Richard and Judy, who hosted This Morning from its launch in 1988 until 2001.
An insider said: “Cat and Pat has a great ring to it.
“A married couple hosting This Morning again would be the dream . . . although to just have Cat would be perfect too.”
But it could all have been very different for Cat, who in 2006 packed her bags for Hollywood to host So You Think You Can Dance, with no idea what the future held.
‘You have to make yourself indispensable’
In Britain, she was a household name after making the successful jump from children’s shows to primetime TV.
Presenting everything from Fame Academy to Stars in Their Eyes, Cat dominated Saturday night TV in the Noughties — watched by as many as 13million viewers in the days before streaming took over.
As she got ready to leave it all behind her, Cat knew she would have to fight to make it in America.
But she was so determined that she split from her boyfriend of five years, Mark Whelan, insisting work was her priority.
Few could have predicted the one-time model with the Brummie accent would become one of the UK’s biggest exports to Hollywood.
For 20 years, Cat has barely been seen on UK television amid a stellar rise across the Pond, where she was nominated for five Emmys, hosted Fox TV’s New Year Eve extravaganzas and even voiced a cartoon version of herself on The Simpsons.
Her gamble paid off and she is now worth an estimated £12million.
Having started her showbiz career as a 14-year-old when she entered a BBC competition for The Clothes Show, Cat was spotted by modelling agency Storm, who signed her and shortened her name from Catherine to Cat.
Her first break in TV came aged 20 when she co-hosted the MTV chart show Hitlist UK with close friend Edith Bowman, after sending in a home-made audition tape.
In 1998, she landed her four-year stint on kids’ morning show SM:TV with Ant and Dec, and also presented spin-off music programme CD:UK for seven years.
And she showed she could keep her cool on the pop show when she asked rocker Slash from Guns N’ Roses: “What is the weirdest rumour about you?”, and he gave an X-rated reply about a sex act.
Instead of getting flustered, she moved swiftly on.
By 2003, Cat had graduated to weekend TV, hosting Fame Academy and Stars In Their Eyes, followed by the Brit Awards in 2004.
Then in 2006, Brit producer Nigel Lythgoe — memorably dubbed “Nasty Nigel on Pop Idol — made her the offer to go to America to take over his show, So You Think You Can Dance?, which was then in its second season.
Cat split with long-term partner, publicist Mark, to take the job — and later confessed: “Work was the most important thing to me.”
She once said of her shot at cracking America: “I was very aware the only thing that had changed with the show was me.
“So if it bombed, I would be the English scapegoat they would ship off home.
“You have to be logical about it.
“You can’t just come over here all wide-eyed.
“You have to make it your own, make yourself a bit indispensable.”
Cat came up with the idea to interview dancers before they appeared on the show in a format change later followed by producers worldwide.
She said: “I wanted them and the audience to feel I was with them every step of the way.
“I didn’t want just to appear later on and for them to think, ‘Hang on a moment.
“Who’s this strange English chick who’s pretending to be our friend?’.”
While her fame soared, Cat had little luck with love.
She dated Twilight star Jack Huston, 40, of the Huston acting family dynasty, for two years from 2008.
It’s said they parted after it “ran its course”.
Still looking for “The One”, the unexpected happened when Cat’s old pal, comic Patrick, flew from Ireland to LA to see her for her birthday.
The pair, who had co-hosted Fame Academy a decade earlier, quickly fell in love after his surprise trip, which saw him pick up the bill for her birthday dinner.
Cat said: “That is quite possibly the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.
“He was just sitting there hanging out with 12 of my friends, making everybody laugh.
“It was romantic, noble, kind of amazing and pretty hard not to fall in love with him.”
After just nine months of dating, Cat and Patrick married in Rome in 2012, and kids Milo, seven, and James, five, followed.
The couple returned to Britain in 2020 and Patrick has now landed his “dream job” hosting The Late Late Show on Ireland’s RTE One.
Part of their decision to return to the UK came amid worries over America’s school shootings.
Cat said: “There was a moment when I was with a friend looking at potential schools for Milo and we had to ask the question nobody wants to: ‘What do you do if there is a live shooter on the premises?’.
“They tell you exactly what would happen, whether the kids would go to a safe room or hide under the desks, and you realise . . . the danger suddenly becomes a reality.”
Cat’s fears were compounded when the FBI, hunting a shooter, swooped on an LA mall Patrick was visiting with Milo.
She 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 get us?’
“He wanted to keep Milo calm, so I didn’t understand the enormity of what was happening.
“As I was driving, I began to see helicopters, news vans, firemen and SWAT [armed police response] squads. It still makes me go funny.”
Cat also wanted to be close to parents Howard and Janet.
She once said: “The boys have grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews who want to be part of their lives.”
Whatever the reasons, America will no doubt miss one of its brightest stars — but Hollywood’s loss is Britain’s gain.
