Kelly Rizzo is opening up about the difficulty of dating after losing your spouse.
Rizzo, 45, took to Instagram on Wednesday to talk about her struggles dating after the untimely death of her late husband, Bob Saget. Saget died on Jan. 9, 2022, at age 65. The Full House star and celebrated comedian was found unresponsive in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida. His cause of death was later revealed to be accidental head trauma.
“Dating after losing your spouse. So crazy how controversial of a topic this is,” Rizzo said in her Instagram Reel while making a pesto panini. “When I lost Bob two and a half years ago, even the thought of moving forward — not moving on, moving forward — gave me so much anxiety. What will people think? What will my loved ones think? What will Bob’s loved ones think? What will the public think? It’s a weird thing I had to worry about. What would Bob think? Finally, who’s ever going to want to date a widow? I hate that word.”
When Rizzo began dating her current boyfriend, Breckin Meyer, she faced criticism from people suggesting that she was dating too soon after the death of her husband. But Rizzo has defended her choice to find love two years after Saget died.
The Comfort Food podcast host continued in the clip, “So I’ve actually been very fortunate to have all the support in the world from my family and friends, Bob’s family and friends. Yes, even the public has been lovely except for a couple negative comments. I was very fortunate to find someone who is so kind and compassionate and understanding about the whole situation. Literally someone where the joke is actually, ‘this is the one person on Earth that Bob wouldn’t be that mad about.'”
Rizzo’s relationship with the Clueless actor, 50, was confirmed in February, and the couple went Instagram official in May. Now, she’s asking people to stop judging widows for moving forward and to instead support them.
“But here’s the point – there is absolutely no room for anyone to judge,” she said. “This is a very complex situation. A lot of complicated feelings. Unless you’ve ever actually been through it, you just really do not understand what it’s like.”
She concluded, “So if you’re a person who has lost someone, just understand that you have a lot more support out there than you think. And if you have someone in your life who has lost somebody and is going through the difficult time of trying to figure out the best way for them to move forward, the best thing that you can do is just to love them and support them and be there for them.”
Comments were flooded with support of Rizzo addressing such a hard topic, with many of her followers sharing similar stories.
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