Amanda Kloots Addresses Dating Criticism, Still Wears Wedding Ring After Nick Cordero's Death

Amanda Kloots is opening up about her struggles with dating after losing her husband Nick Cordero last year.

During an Instagram Live Sunday, the fitness instructor discussed "dating after loss" with friend Brandon Janous, who is a widower and a dad of three. Kloots addressed the criticism she received after announcing on "The Talk" that she got back into the dating scene a year after Cordero died of COVID-19 complications.

Kloots began by saying that, like most widows, she "will never, ever not love" Cordero or "go a day without missing" him.

"Even if I found amazing love again and I am beyond happy, I think every day I will miss Nick," she said. "Every day I will look at Elvis and wish Nick could see what he's doing. That will never change."

Kloots shared that she has gone on a few dates that simply comprised of "wonderful talk" rather than anything romantic.

"I’ve had like three dates," she said "I don’t know if you call them dates because it’s been super duper casual because that's all that I’m comfortable with right now."

"I still wear my wedding ring. I haven’t taken it off… To be honest, me taking my wedding ring off before the date makes me feel like I’m cheating on my husband in a weird way, which doesn’t make any sense because I’m totally not," she admitted.

Kloots also made it clear that though she has had a few dates, she is still single.

"I don't have a boyfriend. I'm not in love again. I'm not secretly engaged. I am not secretly pregnant. None of those things are true," she explained.

She continued, "It's wild what people start assuming and yet here you are struggling every single day. Every day. I cried last night myself to sleep. This pain does not go away, like I said, it is a wound so deep. It does not go away but you know, the only way to know if you are ready or in my opinion again, just speaking my truth not anyone else's, I felt like the only way to know is by trying."

During their conversation, Kloots asked Janous, whose wife Rachel was sick for two years before she succumbed to cancer, if he and his late wife ever had conversations about him finding love again -- something that she and Cordero had apparently never discussed. Janous shared that before his wife passed away, she would always remind him that he doesn't have to live his life alone even after her.

Meanwhile, Kloots said the criticism over her dating again was "offensive" not only to herself but also Cordero because it's "insinuating" that he wouldn’t want her to be happy.

"When you're truly in love with somebody and truly love someone, you only wish for their happiness," she said.

Kloots posted the video not long after she fired back at one social media user who called her decision to start dating again "fast."

"How dare you judge anyone especially someone going through this process," she wrote on her Instagram Story in a screenshot obtained by People.

Kloots added, "I will address this soon guys, I promise. There's too much to say and too much that widows deal with to not talk about it. Until then I will call out anyone who is rude enough to comment like this."

Cordero, a Tony award-nominated Broadway actor, died at 41 in July 2020 after a battle with COVID-19. He tied the knot with Kloots in 2017 and welcomed son Elvis two years later.