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Cat Deeley, longtime presenter of So You Think You Can Dance, has revealed particulars of her expertise being caught up in a Los Angeles shopping center taking pictures scare that made her wish to go away her home in Hollywood and return to stay within the UK.
The Sun newspaper reports that Deeley, about to take over internet hosting duties on ITV flagship daytime present This Morning, needed to maneuver away from the US after her household have been caught in a shopping center taking pictures in 2019.
The paper recounts how the presenter, her husband Paddy and young son Milo have been pressured to take cowl throughout a lunch outing in a Shake Shack restaurant in Century City, Los Angeles. When sirens sounded, they have been instructed to hunt shelter after a disgruntled ex-Amazon worker. Deeley is quoted in The Sun remembering:
“Everyone was instructed to lie behind the counter or pushed into the loos. People have been screaming and crying.
“Then, as they have been all hiding, the FBI up with weapons.
“Paddy saved Milo calm — he didn’t actually know what was occurring.
“As I was driving, I began to see helicopters, news vans, firemen and armed police squads. It makes me go funny now. The gun laws in America are crazy.”
The assailant was arrested and named as Nicholas Oates, who was sentenced to seven years in jail for arson and assault with a firearm. The Sun stories that he’s now out of jail.
By the time of the scare, Deeley had been working and dwelling in Hollywood for over a decade, together with her lengthy stint presenting So You Think You Can Dance for Fox.
This week sees her take over principal presenting duties on This Morning, alongside Ben Shephard. ITV can be hoping their arrival sees a brand new chapter for the present after a chequered 2022, during which earlier hosts Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby each departed in dramatic type – Schofield resigning after his secret affair with a young intern was revealed, and Willoughby after she found she was the goal of a kidnapping and homicide plot.
