Amanda Kloots, the wife of late actor Nick Cordero, has opened up about life without her husband and how their son is coping.
Actor Nick Cordero passed away aged just forty-one years old back in 2020…
And his family has been trying to piece their life together ever since.
Cordero was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, going on to attend Ryerson University in Toronto for 2 years before leaving to perform in the band Lovemethod.
He made his stage debut back in 2012 in the title role in the off-Broadway production of The Toxic Avenger.
And it was a huge success.
That same year Cordero played the role of Dennis in the Broadway production of the popular show Rock of Ages.
He found a real passion for the stage.
Cordero appeared in the musical Bullets Over Broadway in the role of Cheech.
His success skyrocketed…
And he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
He went on to win the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and a Theater World Award for the role.
After this he went on to join the Broadway premiere of the musical A Bronx Tale, playing Sonny at the Longacre Theatre.
After some incredible achievements, Cordero went on to marry Amanda Kloots…
The couple tied the knot back in 2017 and now have an eleven-month-old son named Elvis together, who was born in 2019.
But not long after, the worst happened.
Cordero was hospitalized on March 30, 2020.
Cordero was initially diagnosed with pneumonia…
But it was later discovered that he had tested positive for coronavirus.
And his condition worsened.
Just 2 days after he tested positive, he was intubated and put in a medically induced coma.
But devastatingly, he continued to decline.
On April 18, Cordero had to have his leg amputated after suffering from blood clots as a result of one of the machines he was put on to save his life.
Shortly after, he had surgery to get a temporary pacemaker fitted.
Not long after, wife Kloots shared on Instagram that doctors removed his pacemaker with hopes that “removing lines will help with infections that can cause blood pressure issues.”
And thankfully it did.
Kloots also announced on May 12 that Cordero had woken up from his 6-week coma but still had a long road of recovery ahead of him.
She had been trying to remain optimistic throughout the whole thing…
She also started a social media campaign to spread positivity and awareness about the dangers of the virus.
Kloots took to social media to ask for prayers.
“Please cheer and please pray for Nick today, and I know that this virus is not going to get him down,” she said. “It’s not how his story ends, so just keep us in your thoughts and prayers today, thank you.”
It became clear that his body was struggling to fight the virus.
But Kloots tried to remain positive — praying for a miracle. “I’ve been told a couple times that he won’t make it. I’ve been told to say goodbye. I’ve been told it would take a miracle. Well, I have faith,” she wrote in a recent Instagram caption. “Faith that is small as a mustard seed sometimes, but that is all you need sometimes.”
And devastatingly, after ninety days in the hospital, Cordero succumbed to the illness.
He was just forty-one years old.
Since then, Kloots has been open about her struggles with losing her husband and the father of her child.
She shared on iHeartRadio’s The Important Things with Bobbi Brown podcast that it has been really hard this year, especially for her son.
“I’m not going to lie, I’ve had a really hard September for some reason,” she admitted. “I mean, not for some reason. It’s our anniversary, it’s his birthday.”
“September always feels like a new start to me, feels more to me like a new year than January. And I think with all those events that are important, and with Elvis going to school, it was a hard month.”
Kloots revealed that Elvis has been asking “where his dad is” a lot more.
“I feel like that part of grief is going to start happening, where I have to now face his grief after dealing with mine for the last two years — helping Elvis understand at this young age where dad is, why dad doesn’t live with us, what happened to dad. And it’s been really, really, really hard.”
She shared that Elvis also “doesn’t want me to leave the house” and “doesn’t want babysitters to come over,” which is “really hard” for her, “finding the balance as a working mom and trying to also maybe go on a date here or there.”
“You feel guilty every time you leave the house and he’s crying. It’s actually been really hard lately,” she shared. “I’ve had a lot of nights where I’ve cried and [thought] ‘this isn’t fair’ and ‘life isn’t fair’ and ‘I shouldn’t be in this position.'”
Despite being so young when he lost his dad, Kloots said that Elvis still remembers him.
“Which is crazy, I don’t know if that’s because we watch so many videos together of Nick or because I talk about Nick so much. But he does, he does say that and I love it. But it makes me wonder,” she said.
Kloots added that she “just had to start this conversation” about where his dad is to Elvis.
“I have said, ‘Dada lives in heaven with Jesus but he’s all around us all the time. And we can always talk to him, we can listen to him sing and he’s watching over us all the time.’ That’s what I’ve said so far.”
You can listen to the podcast here.