Sitting side by side at the top table in the ballroom of a Mayfair hotel on London’s Park Lane, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman were the talk of the party.Dressed in a striking floor-length red gown to host the event for a large music charity, Cates was seen beaming alongside her Match of the Day co-host as they enjoyed their first night out together after it was revealed they had been enjoying a very secret romance.To those in the room, it was a surprise to see the couple go public – and it prompted lots of chatter.One guest at the event, where former footballers Thierry Henry and Karen Carney won awards, tells me: ‘Kelly and Mark were at the table together at the front, on the right.‘It was the host’s table and he was there as her guest. They were talking openly to people they’d known for a long time about being together. Kelly looked happy but Mark looked the happiest I’ve ever seen him. It was lovely to see.‘He was glowing. Mark has been through some real grief and difficulty but he has come out the other side.’Indeed, following the event the couple stayed late at the after party, held in the hotel’s Red Bar, where they ‘looked like they were having the best time’.Meanwhile, long standing friends of the pair were busy discussing their romance, wondering just what took them so long. BBC stalwart Mark, 52, and Kelly, 51, the daughter of Liverpool footballing legend Kenny Dalglish, were revealed to be dating on Monday‘They’re old mates who have known one another for years – nearly two decades – and now they’ve fallen in love,’ says one source.‘You’ll struggle to meet one person in either their work or friendship circles who isn’t totally thrilled for them.‘It’s lovely, the most heartwarming story you will hear in a very long time.’BBC stalwart Mark, 52, and Kelly Cates, 51, the daughter of Liverpool footballing legend Kenny Dalglish, were revealed to be dating on Monday, several months after they are said to have realised that they had feelings for one another.It was reported that they started to fall for one another in May. But in fact, I can reveal, it was during their time in Atlanta during the football World Cup this summer, while covering England’s ill-fated semi-final against Argentina, that sparks really flew.They were both in the city in mid-July working separately across the BBC’s television and radio outlets, and were able to spend time together away from the cameras.That, say friends, was a couple of months after he split from his former girlfriend, the Dubai-based estate agent Clere Collier.‘It was America when it all started to happen,’ says an associate of the pair. ‘They realised they had feelings for one another and they were both single, and it just works. They haven’t exactly tried to keep it a secret, but they haven’t gone out and broadcasted it to the world either.’There was, however, perhaps a hint of it when they appeared on the sofa together on Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox this summer.While they are said to be very much in love, their romance is, for now at least, a long distance one. While Kelly lives in Chiswick, west London, Mark lives 194 miles away in the upmarket Cheshire town of Hale.Friends tell me that it is actually ‘rather convenient’ when Kelly presents Match of the Day, since the Salford studio is less than ten miles from his home.While there is barely a single person in the very close-knit world of sports broadcasting who isn’t beyond delighted for Kelly and Mark, 43-year-old Clere is said to be ‘raging’.So much so that when she discovered Mark and Kelly were together, she contacted The Sun newspaper to share the news. Affectionately known across the industry and by viewers as Chappers, Mark started his career in 1996 as a continuity announcer on BBC television Clere Collier put a smile back on Mark’s face after his wife Sara’s death from cancer in 2020 and sources say she had been planning to relocate to Britain from DubaiI’m told by a friend that Mark knows she was the source of the story, and very much views it as her ‘taking her chance to give him one back’.Those who know her say that she can be ‘quite dramatic’ – but there is sympathy towards her from some quarters, too.Clere put a smile back on Mark’s face after his wife Sara’s death from cancer in 2020 and sources say she had been planning to relocate to Britain from Dubai as she believed her relationship with him was becoming more serious.Back in the spring, however, out of the blue, Mark told her that their romance was over.‘It all came as a shock to Clere when Mark told her that,’ says my source. ‘At that point Clere still thought they were in a pretty good place and wanted to take their relationship to the next stage, which meant they would have to be in the same country.‘Clere had been telling friends for a while that she saw herself back in England to be close to him. She was heartbroken when he ended things. She was not happy at all.’As for his newfound relationship with Kelly, sources suggest Clere found out ‘very recently’ and was ‘gobsmacked’.‘Clere was shocked and upset that Mark had moved on with Kelly so quickly. It’s the kind of thing that throws a lot of doubt into minds when that happens.‘It has thrown her life into a place where she didn’t expect it to be going.’Those familiar with Mark and Kelly say her father Kenny and her older brother Paul are said to be ‘very happy’ she has found love with Chapman. Affectionately known across the industry and by viewers as Chappers, Mark started his career in 1996 as a continuity announcer on BBC television before moving into sports reporting – first on BBC North East and later on Radio 1.He became the resident sportscaster across the BBC’s radio output, and in 2010 joined Radio 5 Live where he cemented his reputation as one of the organisation’s most respected sports commentators and presenters.On BBC radio, he anchored coverage of major events including the London 2012 Olympic Games. Later he landed roles on rival networks including Sky Sports and ESPN.But tragedy derailed his flourishing career six years ago, when Sara died after a long illness at the age of just 44.Mark and Sara had married in 2000 and had three children. Gabby Logan, Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates all host Match of the Day, with Mark living less than ten miles from the Salford studioThe heartbreaking news was announced in June 2020 – with a source close to the family saying: ‘Mark and the kids are absolutely devastated. The family was there. It’s just a really sad situation.’ He remained single for years before meeting Clere, and their romance appeared to be going from strength to strength, with the couple reportedly spotted looking at houses together in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, despite her being based abroad. Clere would regularly post loved-up snaps of them together on her social media.In October of 2024, she gushed over her man on Instagram, calling him ‘my one love’.And in another image posted of the couple as they went on a country walk to celebrate his birthday that same year, she wrote: ‘Happy birthday to this one. My one love.‘So proud of all you do, the biggest heart, the kindest soul, the leader of our pack and not to mention devilishly handsome. I love you, happy 51.’ Two years later and Mark has moved on, finding love again with Kelly – the eldest of Dalglish’s four children with wife Marina.Born in Glasgow, Kelly took a job at Sky Sports News in 1998, midway through her mathematics degree at the University of Glasgow.She was the channel’s first ever woman presenter, alongside Mike Wedderburn, before she moved to Setanta Sports in 2007 and then to ESPN, where she first worked with Mark.She became a familiar face on various sports networks – until in January last year she was announced as one of the new co-hosts of Match of the Day, following the departure of Gary Lineker. It was the biggest move of her career.Away from the cameras, Kelly married television producer Tom Cates in 2007 and went on to have two daughters before splitting 14 years later. At Monday night’s event, one of the hottest topics among gossiping guests was what the BBC’s director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski is making of the revelations. Chapman and Cates are two of his biggest on-screen stars, after all.While they never host together, the news has inevitably cast the show in a rather new light. When Lineker was at the helm, he was often criticised for airing personal feelings (though never romantic ones). Installing well-respected and mild-mannered Mark, alongside Gabby Logan and Kelly, appeared the perfect low-key shift away from the headlines generated by Lineker’s controversial opinions and back to the flagship programme’s sporting focus.‘Replacing Gary was supposed to be the last time the show was talked about for anything other than football, and now suddenly there is this,’ says a source within BBC sport.‘Friends are happy for them of course, but now the cat is out of the bag, there will be fears that it could make life at work a lot more complicated.Alex doesn’t like the BBC being put under scrutiny and doesn’t want any controversy. The assumption of those who know Alex is that he won’t be thrilled about this.’As for what Mark and Kelly think of Kay-Jelski, who joined the BBC two years ago to spearhead the sports department, it will perhaps be the one topic they argue about.‘Kelly loves Alex, Chappers hates him,’ says my source.And what of their colleague Gabby, a long-standing friend of both?‘Well, she’s the spare part now,’ quipped a friend of the couple. ‘The gooseberry. Who would have thought it?’