Kelly Cates stepped out in a red dress just hours after her reported romance with Mark Chapman was revealed. The Match of the Day star attended the Legends of Football Awards in London on Monday evening.
Kelly, 51, hosted the awards alongside Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves at London's Grosvenor House. She took to the stage in a floor-length red dress with spaghetti straps. Keeping her hair loose in her signature chic bob, Kelly's drop earrings could be seen, as she opted for minimal jewellery.
Legends of Football Awards
Kelly and Geoff presented Thierry Henry and Karen Carney, among others, with awards as Legends of Football celebrated its 30th birthday. They were joined by several stars including Wes Morgan and ex-racing star Sir Tony McCoy.
The event came less than a day after sources shared that Kelly and her Match of the Day co-star Mark Chapman, aka Chappers, were in a relationship. The two have been co-presenting the BBC sports show for a year, alongside Gabby Logan, and the relationship comes after both suffered heartbreaks.
Kelly's dating history
Her current relationship is the first in a few years for Kelly. Following the end of her 14-year marriage to Tom Cates in 2021, she spoke openly about returning to the dating scene in her mid-40s. On Gabby Logan's The Mid Point podcast, she admitted to feeling "nervous" about single life and said she had a strong dislike for dating apps.
Kelly said her own confidence had also taken a knocking. "I don’t have a picture in my head of why a middle-aged, slightly overweight, mother-of-two could possibly be attractive," she said.
Mark Chapman's past
Meanwhile, Chappers was said to be in a relationship with Clere Collier earlier this year, but they split in April. Clere was his first public relationship since his wife's death in 2020.
The 52-year-old was married to Sara Chapman for 19 years. They wed in 2001 and had three children together before she sadly died from cancer in 2020. Chappers has never publicly spoken about the loss but colleagues including Dan Walker and Simon Thomas have shared how he was holding his family together.
Chappers and Kelly started working together last year and, this July, the two also appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox. Speaking about working with Chappers and their co-star Gabby Logan, Kelly previously said: "Being on a team with them is genuinely really exciting. I feel like I’m in a great little group."
She added to the White Wine Question Time podcast: "People have this perception that it is a massive ego-filled world, and it is at times. You need a certain sort of ego to feel like you can do the job because you need a certain amount of confidence. But you don’t want to be in a position where we’re all trying to scramble over each other.
"The fact we’re all the same age, we’re at the same stage of our careers, we’ve all got other things outside of Match of the Day that we are all passionate about and really invested in, it means none of us are treading on each other and preying on each other’s insecurities."
