Dating nerves

Cates separated from her husband in 2021 and began dating again. She married TV producer Tom Cates in 2007 and they have two daughters. 

But she revealed she was ‘nervous’ to reenter the dating scene and admitted she would be ‘resentful’ of anyone who wasted her time. She told Gabby Logan’s Mid Point podcast: “I don’t have a picture in my head of why a middle-aged, slightly overweight mother of two could possibly be attractive.

“I can’t get my head round that. It’s not that I’m putting myself down and it’s not a lack of confidence or a low self-esteem. It’s just I don’t know what that would look like.”

Cates added: “The thought of going on a date, spending an evening with someone and at the end of it thinking, ‘Well, I don’t really like you’, I would be so resentful of them taking up my time.

“Obviously it’s vice versa, too, but I’m not really bothered about it from their perspective – bearing in mind I don’t get to see the people I do like very often.”