RTÉ bosses are hopeful that ‘Homebird’ Patrick Kielty will renew his Late Late Show contract when it expires next year.
The news comes as the popular host and his wife, Cat Deeley, announced their separation this week, after 13 years of marriage.
Patrick Kielty has become a viewer’s favourite as well as a highly popular figure in RTÉ since taking over from Ryan Tubridy two years ago.
The Dundrum, Co. Down man will be back on our screens for a new Late Late season next month. He has not given any indication
if he will extend his three-year contract when it expires next year.
Dublin-to-Belfast train commuters can often spot Patrick on a Wednesday or Thursday evening, going home to the house he bought 25 years ago in Dundrum.
An RTÉ source told the Irish Mail on Sunday this week: ‘Usually he’s [in Dublin] three nights. He goes back up home – I think
people were surprised by that initially, but that’s what suits him. ‘He’s a homebird.’
He is still deeply rooted in his community and regularly drops into his local, the Dundrum Inn. His two boys play GAA with the
local team during the summer and were visitors to their granny, Mary, all year round, according to locals.
Mary Kielty died in March of this year, but Deeley and the couple’s children did not attend the funeral, raising eyebrows. The
couple, their children and Deeley’s parents spent last Christmas in his Dundrum house.
Asked if it was hoped Patrick would renew his contract, a senior source in RTÉ told the MoS the broadcaster does not 'comment on individual contracts’, but noted that the staff are ‘very much looking forward to him returning for The Late Late in September’.
‘What happens in his personal life is his personal business,’ the source added. RTÉ could not comment on whether or not it believed Patrick would be renewing his contract when it expires next year.
A station source said, ‘I’m sure people would be hoping he would stay on,’ but they stressed, ‘Who knows what his plans are? It’s a good bit off.’
Another RTÉ source described the presenter as ‘a gent’. ‘He’s really easy company. He has a nice vibe about him. He’s very relaxed. It’s infectious in a good way. It sets a nice tone, I think.’ Patrick’s contract earns him €250,000 a year.
This is dwarfed by the reported £600,000 (€688,645) per year Cat is paid to host the hit ITV show, This Morning. Her current contract will keep her on the show’s sofa until Spring 2026.
But Cat's side venture with her long-time friend, Amanda Grossman, has been less lucrative and has recorded significant losses in the past two years. She co-owns a perfume company called Canyon International Limited, a vehicle for their brand E11even.
The brand’s website describes it as ‘a luxury unisex fragrance oil that has a completely unique effect on the wearer and those around them’.
The company was £62,605 (€71,844) in the red as of the end of March 2024, according to records. That was down on the previous year’s deficit of £76,487 (€87,7656).
Patrick's company, Boxed Productions Limited, based in Co. Down, had healthy shareholder funds of £1,375,544 (€1,578,773) as of the end of March last year.
He is the sole director of Boxed – listed as a ‘performing arts’ company – which is also the 100% shareholder of his Irish-registered company Pamanco Ireland Limited, of which Kielty is listed as co-director along with Co. Mayo businessman Pat Walsh.
Pamanco, set up two days after Patrick was confirmed as Late Late host in May 2023, had net assets of €151,714 as of the end of July 2024, against a turnover of €286,656.
Patrick and Cat spent around €5.7 million on their London home in 2023, and they have reportedly spent around the same figure renovating it. Their combined net worth has been variously estimated at between €13m and €26m.
In a joint statement released earlier this week, the couple said they ‘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.’
