Amanda Kloots Addresses Critics Policing Her Grief Over Nick Cordero’s Death

Amanda Kloots is sending a message to people policing the way she grieves late husband Nick Cordero, who died in April 2020 after a lengthy battle with COVID-19. In a new interview with The Daily Beast, The Talk co-host shared how she’s been criticized for continuing to work and provide for 2-year-old son Elvis by people who think her grieving should look differently.

“Being a woman, people expect you to wear black every day for a year and cry and mourn that person,” said the author of New York Times bestseller Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero. “You don’t have to wear black and stay at home to mourn. Trust me, I mourn every single day. I’ve cried almost every single day.”

Part of the backlash against her continuing to work and taking the job on The Talk has felt sexist, Kloots explained. “I hate to say it, but I do think that there is a stereotype of a woman that you can’t smile two weeks after your husband passed. God forbid you’re working out or trying to maintain your business.” In comparison, the reaction towards a man, she said is more like, “‘Wow, look at him. He’s so strong. He’s still working every day providing for his family.’ But if it’s a woman, it is a little bit looked at differently.”

The reality of grief for Kloots is being able to go outside and feel joy in doing something like play tennis, but when she gets in the car, she’ll have a “breakdown.” “That’s the true reality of grief,” she shared. “You can’t tell anybody what to do. That’s just something that you have to walk through every day and find the strength to get through every single day.”

Kloots dives into so much about Cordero’s COVID-19 battle and her time with him in the hospital before his death at just 41, but the fitness instructor said she’s chosen not to share the exact details of how her Broadway star husband died because it was “so personal” for their family. “When Nick passed, it was a couple of things. Selfishly, I felt like I lost this battle that I had been fighting,” she shared. “I also was still in disbelief. I wanted to keep it private. It was so beautiful in a way that I felt I really needed to take time to process it before letting it out into the world. I think all that I really felt that I needed to share was that he passed, that we lost him, and that we’re doing the best we can.” One day, Kloots said she would share the end of her time with Cordero, but only after the “actual full, honest story” is out there for everyone to know.