Amanda Kloots Reveals DWTS Is a Way to Find Herself after Losing Husband Nick Codero

This week, Amanda Kloots got to show off her dance moves on the premiere episode of “Dancing with the Stars.” She explained how starring in the show was linked to dealing with her husband’s death.

On Monday, September 20, 2021, Amanda Kloots, 39, was one of the celebrities who dazzled audiences and judges alike on “Dancing with the Stars" (DWTS). This week the show premiered its 30th season.

Kloots was matched up to professional dancer Alan Bersten. Their very first dance was the tango, and the fitness instructor didn’t do so badly with a score of twenty-eight out of forty.

In an interview, Kloots explained to Bersten that she grew up dancing. She revealed she’d done Broadway for seventeen years before everything went downhill.

She lost her husband, Nick Cordero, became a single mother to their son, and battled the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of us. Cordero sadly passed away on July 5, 2020.

Kloots became emotional as she explained why she’d chosen to star in the dance competition this year. With tears in her eyes, she confessed to the professional dancer and her dance partner:

“This opportunity is kind of a way to find myself again and to feel his presence every day.”

The instructor admitted she missed her actor husband daily since losing him from complications related to COVID-19. “The Talk” show’s co-host said she missed every part of Cordero.

The show was the one [Nick] Cordero starred in before his death.

She also revealed that if he could’ve spoken to her before passing, Cordero would’ve demanded that she keep going and never stop living. The widow also told DWTS host Tyra Banks something personal after her dance.

She told Banks that one of her girlfriends told Kloots she had a dream where Cordero was “in the second balcony, so that's where I put him." Her debut in the dance competition came days after her late husband’s 43rd birthday.

Kloots was also a former member of the dance company the Rockettes. Ahead of the DWTS premiere, she had to defend herself against the notion that she had the upper hand in the competition because of her background.

Kloots admitted her training could help but felt Broadway and ballroom dancing were two different worlds. She confessed that it was like she was learning an entirely different language.

Even though the "Blue Bloods" star has passed on, on September 2, 2021, Kloots was accompanied by Zach Braff for the Broadway reopening of “Waitress.” The show was the one Cordero starred in before his death.