Actress and broadcaster Kate Ritchie has been spotted getting up close and personal with a new man at a Sydney beach.
Ritchie, 44, was seen sharing a kiss with a man who Woman’s Day has identified as Chevy Black during a recent outing to Clovelly, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The outlet reports that Ritchie and Black have “grown close” in the past few months, with Kate already having been introduced to her new beau’s family.
The new relationship comes after Kate’s nine-year marriage to former rugby player Stuart Webb, which ended in 2019. After that, she dated security consultant John Bell, 17 years her junior, for a year.
The loved-up pictures come amid rumours of a big career change for Ritchie, who is currently on an extended break from her national Nova drive show Kate, Tim & Joel.
The Australian’sMedia Diary this week reported that Ritchie, who stepped back from her duties on the Nova show last October, is entertaining the idea of working alongside Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli on the network’s Sydney breakfast show, Fitzy & Wippa.
While there’s been no formal announcement, Ritchie – who had co-hosted the national drive timeslot since 2014 – said in mid-January that she’d be back on-air with Joel Creasey and Tim Blackwell in “a few more weeks”.
She is yet to return, with former Australian Idol star Ricki-Lee Coulter currently filling in.
Ritchie stunned listeners back in October when she revealed she’d be stepping away from the show for a break after a “hectic” year.
“As some of you may have heard from me on the show today, this past year has been hectic for my family and I. I have had much change, like many of you, in a short space of time and it has taken its toll,” Ritchie wrote on social media.
“So I’ve made the decision to take a short break to have more time for myself and my family to re-energise.”
Ritchie’s break wasn’t entirely restful, however. She publicly called out the Daily Mail before Christmas over what she described as a “shocking invasion of privacy” when the outlet published paparazzi photos of her outside a mental health facility.
“I decided to use this time to do something positive by getting the help I need from professionals who specialise in this area,” Ritchie wrote on Instagram.
“As everyone would understand, this is a very big step for me to take.
“It is a shocking invasion of my privacy that the Daily Mail, through their unrelenting stalking of me, has forced me to issue this public statement, in their blatant attempt to publicly shame me on a private health matter.”