Amanda Kloots says new love does not erase old grief, six years after Nick Cordero's death
NEW YORK, Aug 16. Six years after Broadway star Nick Cordero died of COVID-19, his widow Amanda Kloots told Fox News Digital that the judgment widows face when they begin dating rests on a false premise. The assumption, she said, is that new love requires leaving the person lost behind. She said it does not.
Key takeaways
- Six years after Nick Cordero died of COVID-19, his widow Amanda Kloots told Fox News Digital that new love does not require leaving behind the person who was lost.
- Kloots compared holding grief and new love at once to raising more than one child, saying a second does not reduce the love given to the first.
- Nick Cordero died July 5, 2020, after 95 days hospitalized fighting COVID-19, during which he had a leg amputated and suffered mini-strokes, blood clots, and septic infections.
- Kloots now hosts the podcast "Good Grief with Amanda Kloots" and appears as an advisor on Netflix's "Let's Marry Harry."
- Kloots said she intends to keep saying Cordero's name and talking about him so his memory stays alive for their son, Elvis.
NEW YORK, Aug 16. Six years after Broadway star Nick Cordero died of COVID-19, his widow Amanda Kloots told Fox News Digital that the judgment widows face when they begin dating rests on a false premise. The assumption, she said, is that new love requires leaving the person lost behind. She said it does not.
"The heart can hold a lot of love," Kloots said. She compared the experience to raising more than one child: a second does not reduce what a parent gives to the first. Grief and new love occupy the same space, she said, without canceling each other out.
Cordero died July 5, 2020, after 95 days in a hospital fighting COVID-19. He survived mini-strokes, blood clots, septic infections, and a tracheostomy before doctors amputated his right leg. Kloots and Cordero had relocated from New York City to Los Angeles in March 2020, when their son Elvis was nine months old. She has since raised Elvis while continuing to speak publicly about his father.
"If he was still alive, I'd be talking about him all the time," she said. Stopping that conversation, she said, is one of the biggest mistakes people make after a death. She also described an active spiritual connection to Cordero, saying she and Elvis receive signs from him regularly.
Kloots's projects on grief and relationships
Kloots is now hosting "Good Grief with Amanda Kloots," a podcast she said covers loss across categories: death, divorce, career collapse, and the end of relationships or futures people expected. She also appears on Netflix's "Let's Marry Harry," in which reality star Harry Jowsey's romantic decisions are shaped by three close friends. Kloots serves as one of those advisors.
Before filming, she and Jowsey worked through his romantic history. She said she identified a recurring pattern: he had equated fighting with love. She challenged him to reconsider. "What if we flip the switch here?" she told him, according to the interview.
Her message to people close to widows is direct: support them, because they are navigating something they never wished to face. "It is so difficult and it is so hard and if you make it harder for us, it really isn't fair," she said.
She said she intends to keep Cordero's name alive for Elvis. "Keep saying their names, keep talking about them," she said.