Kate Ritchie has been left red-faced after asking Channel Seven‘s Michael Usher out on a date live on-air.
During Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie on Monday morning, the 45-year-old former Home and Away star revealed her mum Heather is keen on setting her up with the 7News anchor.
Kate’s co-hosts Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli then encouraged her to invite Michael along as her date to Nova’s upcoming singles ball.
If Michael Usher is single and Kate Richie is single, it probably makes sense of both of them were invited to our singles party!’ Wippa said.
It wasn’t long before Michael called into the show to reject Kate’s offer, awkwardly revealing he is currently in a relationship.
‘The funny thing is, is that my girlfriend was listening and called me and said “tell them you’re not single!”‘ he said.
‘Look I would love to be a part of this but as she said “call into that station right now and say you’re not single”.’
The radio hosts all expressed disappointment before Wippa attempt one last act of persuasion.
‘Michael, you missed out on the slow dance with Kate Richie!’ he said.
That would have made all of my Home and Away dreams come true after many, many years,’ Michael jokingly replied.
Michael shares sons Tom, 22, Max, 18, and daughter Alex, 16, with ex-wife Annalie Usher.
In 2020, he admitted to Stellar magazine that his marriage breakdown – now eleven years ago – was unbearable.
‘I was a complete wreck for a while. When you go through a sad time in your life, when you’ve got everything going at speed and you hit a wall and stop dead, you slide down that wall and fall in a heap – and I did that,’ he said.
Michael added he would not have been able to cope without the support of his friends and colleagues.
While he has not commented publicly, it was previously reported Michael split from his ex-wife due to his intense filming schedule for Nine’s 60 Minutes.
Meanwhile, Kate recently split from her rumoured boyfriend Chevy Black.
The pair called it quits in November 2023, nine months after they went Instagram official.
Prior to that, Kate split from her ex-boyfriend John Bell, who was just 25 years old at the time of their relationship
They called time on their relationship at the end of 2021 before her shock rehab stint for alcohol dependency.
In October 2022, Kate announced she was stepping away from the Kate, Tim and Joel show before it was revealed she was seeking treatment at an exclusive rehab clinic in Sydney.
In December that year, she said in a statement the had been challenging and stressful and led to an ‘unhealthy reliance on alcohol’.
Kate split from her husband Stuart Webb after 10 years of marriage.
While it’s unclear when exactly the pair ended their marriage, she was seen without her wedding ring for over a year and moved out of their marital home in Sydney’s Randwick in late 2019.
Kate moved out after police took out an interim AVO on her behalf against the former NRL star following an incident at the property.
In December 2019, Stuart’s five-time drink driving history was revealed in a police fact sheet as he faced court for blowing 0.083 when he was pulled over by highway patrolmen in the city’s east in March of that year.
The former couple were last spotted together in February 2020, when they celebrated their daughter Mae’s first day of school.