Amanda Kloots is hoping to offer advice to fellow widows on opening themselves up to love again after their partner’s death.
“Letting love back into your life is a journey and sometimes it takes a long time and sometimes people find it right away,” Kloots, 44, exclusively told Us while promoting her “Good Grief with Amanda Kloots” podcast. “I would say the best advice I can give anybody is if you have a friend in my situation, just love and support them.”
Kloots, who was married to late husband Nick Cordero from September 2017 until his death six years ago, continued, “Because when you start dating again after loss, you have to understand you’re not dating again because you want to. This is not like an exciting thing, you don’t want to be in this position, but you do have a heart, and you have a life that you want to live.”
From Kloots’ perspective, her heart “can hold so much love.” The mom of one — who welcomed son Elvis with Cordero in 2019 — explained that her adoration for him will “always be there” but she does have “space in [her] heart to love again.”
“I want to love again and I know Nick would want me to love again,” she said. “It’s like having five children. You don’t love them less when you have more. There’s more parts in your heart. So I think it’s a journey. I think what I can tell you is that in dating again after loss, I’ve learned so much about myself.”
Kloots shared that she looks at dating after his death as a “jigsaw puzzle.” (Cordero died in July 2020 at age 41 after facing complications from COVID.)
“Everyone that I’ve dated, even if it’s just one date, it’s a piece of the puzzle that I’m slowly putting myself back together,” she told Us. “I haven’t found that center piece yet, but I hope I do because I know it’s what I want and I hope and I dream for. But it’s been a beautiful puzzle and I’ve really enjoyed learning what I need now because what I need now is very different from what I needed when I met Nick, and very different from what I needed when he passed away.”
She continued, “I’m a different person. It’s been six years as a single mom and very independent. So it’s a different world. I would just say, anyone in my shoes, allow yourself grace and time. Don’t rush it, and understand that your heart can hold multitudes of love. I’m really kind of just focused on myself and my son and work and I really need to love Amanda again, give her attention.”
Through loving herself again, Kloots launched the “Good Grief With Amanda Kloots” podcast with Dear Media on Wednesday, August 5. The podcast aims to feature honest and uplifting conversations about life after significant change. Some of the guests include Harry Jowsey, Zach Braff and Kelly Rizzo.
“You know what’s so crazy is I was just on the phone with a friend, and she said to me, ‘Amanda, I listened to the podcast … I have not gone through the immense amount of grief that you and your guest went through … But listening to this, I feel like now I have a better understanding of how I can help people,’” Kloots recalled of their conversation. “I want [the podcast] to help people that are grieving, but I also want to extend that out to everyone because this is an emotion we’re all gonna go through at some point in our lives.”
She continued, “All types of grief are so different. I’m learning so much about that in all these interviews. So I just want to build this community where people feel safe to ask questions, safe to laugh, and feel like there’s some forward moving and finding the light at the end of the tunnel.”
