Amanda Kloots confronts biggest misconception about dating after losing a spouse
Amanda Kloots is challenging a common misconception about dating after losing a spouse — that moving forward means leaving the person you lost behind.
Kloots, who lost her husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero, to COVID-19 in 2020, said widows and widowers can face judgment when they begin opening their hearts to someone new — even though grief and love don't simply disappear when a new relationship begins.
AMANDA KLOOTS HONORS LATE HUSBAND NICK CORDERO IN NEW MEMOIR, SAYS HE ‘TRULY JUST LOVED LIFE’
"The heart can hold a lot of love," Kloots said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "And just because I'm dating again or any widow or widower is dating again, it doesn't mean that you don't love your person that you lost still or any less."
"It’s in fact more," the "Good Grief" podcast host shared.
Kloots isn't asking people to believe that grief disappears.
She's asking them to acknowledge that it doesn't have to prevent someone from living.
"I have many compartments in my heart for love and new relationships," she said. "It's like having more children. It doesn't mean you… love your child less… now [that] you have a new child. Your heart is able to hold many, many types of love, and I wish people understood that you can hold those two things very close."
She said new love does not erase old love.
And for anyone who dates a widow or widower, Kloots explained that reality needs to be understood from the start.
WATCH: AMANDA KLOOTS DEFENDS DATING AGAIN AFTER HUSBAND NICK CORDERO'S DEATH
"These people are never leaving our lives, but there's definitely room and space for new love, new relationships, new marriage and it's so beautiful."
"Celebrate and help and support friends in your life who are on this journey," she said. "It is so difficult and it is so hard and if you make it harder for us, it really isn't fair."
"So really support those people and guide them along on this because they're doing something that is something they never wish they had to do," she continued. "It's not, they're not dating again because ‘yay!’ It's a different type of dating again. So, support them, love them, be kind."
Cordero died on July 5, 2020, after spending 95 days in the hospital battling COVID-19. The Broadway star endured mini-strokes, blood clots, septic infections and a tracheostomy before doctors amputated his right leg.
Kloots documented his fight for his life publicly, giving followers a front-row seat to a nightmare that began just as she, Cordero and their then-9-month-old son, Elvis, were starting a new life in Los Angeles.
They had moved from New York City in March 2020, chasing what was supposed to be a dream.
Kloots suddenly became a widow — and she's never stopped talking about Cordero.
WATCH: AMANDA KLOOTS SHARES HOW SHE STILL FEELS LATE HUSBAND NICK CORDERO'S PRESENCE
She believes stopping the conversation is one of the biggest mistakes people make after someone dies.
"If he was still alive, I'd be talking about him all the time. He's still in my life. I have a son that I'm raising that's his, and I need to make sure that Elvis knows who his dad was and that the world never forgets him."
Cordero, she said, "was such a beautiful man."
"And I don't think anyone we lose has to be forgotten forever," she continued. "Keep saying their names, keep talking about them, keep celebrating them, celebrate their birthdays, celebrate their anniversaries, honor them at the holidays, and every day. They can still be around."
For Kloots, Cordero's presence isn't simply a metaphor. She says she has continued to feel spiritually connected to him since his death.
"You know, they mean everything," Kloots said of the signs she believes she receives from him.
"I feel like when you lose somebody there's such a finality with death, and you really feel like there's no way you'll ever connect with them again, of course. And I started asking for signs right away from Nick, and he started showing up and I just kind of really went all in on it..."
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"I do feel like he's around Elvis and I all the time, and we get signs all the time from him, and I feel like he's on my spirit team just guiding us every single day, and I do feel this really beautiful spiritual connection with him that has got me through these last six years."
That perspective has followed Kloots into her newest chapter — including her role on Netflix's "Let's Marry Harry."
The show puts reality star and notorious bachelor Harry Jowsey's dating life in the hands of three trusted friends, with Kloots serving as a big-sister-like confidante.
WATCH: AMANDA KLOOTS AND REALITY STAR HARRY JOWSEY TOOK 'FULL INVENTORY' OF HIS DATING LIFE BEFORE 'LET'S MARRY HARRY'
Before filming began, she and Jowsey spent time talking about love, marriage and relationships.
"I told him constantly, you know, how you love is so important and marriage changes over time. And you have to really love and communicate with your partner."
Kloots said she quickly noticed a pattern in Jowsey's romantic history.
"He had kind of a track record of fighting equaled love for him."
She challenged him to rethink it.
"What if we flip the switch here? Because I've learned, you know, that I shouldn't have fought so much with my partner. I would take them all back now. I don't have him around anymore."
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Kloots emphasized to Fox News Digital that she isn’t romanticizing loss but learning from it.
She's turning that experience into "Good Grief with Amanda Kloots," her new podcast.
The show tackles grief in its many forms, from death and divorce to lost careers, relationships, identities and futures people thought they were guaranteed to have.
Kloots' grief doesn't have an expiration date, and neither does love.
Six years after Cordero's death, she is still carrying him with her while making room for the life ahead.