Amanda Kloots Knows Exactly Why “Later” Isn’t a Plan

Most people know Amanda Kloots as the upbeat co-host of The Talk, the founder of a jump-rope fitness brand, or the former Radio City Rockette who went on to perform on Broadway. In recent years, though, her name has also become part of a very different conversation: life insurance.

Not because she works in the industry, but because of what she went through.

Her story lands with people because it speaks to something many families avoid talking about. We tend to believe there will be more time to plan, more time to have the hard conversations, and more time to get things in order. Kloots’ experience is a reminder that those chances are not always promised.

The 95 Days That Changed Everything

In March 2020, Amanda Kloots’ husband, Tony-nominated actor Nick Cordero, went to a Los Angeles hospital thinking he had a bad case of pneumonia. Instead, he tested positive for COVID-19, at a time when doctors were still trying to understand the virus and how to treat it.

The next 95 days changed everything for their family. Cordero was placed in a medically induced coma, put on a ventilator, dealt with repeated lung infections, and had his right leg amputated.

Through it all, Kloots shared updates on Instagram. At first, those updates were for the people closest to them. Over time, they became something much bigger. Millions of people followed along, hoping for good news about a man most of them had never met.

Cordero died on July 5, 2020. He was 41. Before getting sick, he had been a healthy father with no known preexisting conditions. He left behind Kloots and their one-year-old son, Elvis.

Grief Doesn’t Clock Out When the Cameras Do

Kloots’ story has stayed with people long after the original headlines because she has continued to talk honestly about what life looked like after losing Cordero.

In the years since his death, she has described grief as something that changed nearly every part of her life, from the way she parents to the way she works to the way she gets through an ordinary day. On the anniversary of Cordero’s death, she wrote that grief taught her to live, a reference to “Live Your Life,” the song fans sang for him during his hospitalization. It later became the title of her 2021 memoir, which she co-wrote with her sister, Anna.

She has also been open about the parts of widowhood people do not always understand. That includes the criticism she faced for returning to work, and later for saying she hoped to find love again.

“Everyone Thinks They’re Invincible Until They’re Not”

That line from Kloots sits at the center of the new Ethos TV campaign, and it is easy to see why it stayed with the team behind it. Dave Brown, VP of Creative and Brand at Ethos, has said that hearing her say it on set was a powerful reminder of what the campaign was really about: helping families think through the plans they often put off until life changes without warning.

In the spot, Kloots talks about losing her husband and how quickly an ordinary day can turn into something no one saw coming. Most people understand that in theory. Her story makes it feel much harder to ignore.

Life insurance cannot take away grief, and no one at Ethos would suggest that it can. What it can do is help remove one major financial burden from a family at a time when they may not have the energy, time, or clarity to deal with it on their own.

The Part of Loss No One Budgets For

When a family is grieving, the practical side of loss can feel almost impossible to think about. But it does not wait.

A spouse dies, and suddenly there are bills to pay, childcare decisions to make, medical costs to sort through, and a household income that may have changed overnight. All of that can happen within days, before anyone has had time to fully process what just happened.

This is also the kind of planning many people put off until “later.” It is easy to delay when you are young, healthy, and busy building a life. Kloots and Cordero were in that stage, which is part of what makes their story so difficult to look away from.

“Later” can feel reasonable in the moment. But it is not really a plan. It is a risk, and families do not always get a warning before that risk becomes real.

Living Forward Without Letting Go

Since 2020, Kloots has continued to build her life and career across television, fitness, a supplements line, and a Hallmark holiday film she wrote and starred in. Along the way, she has also found personal ways to keep Cordero close.

This past June, nearly six years after his death, she shared that she had grown a black diamond from some of his ashes through Eterneva, a company that creates diamonds from ashes. The diamond took a year to grow. She later had it set so the stone rests against her skin, with his initials engraved on the back.

It is not the only keepsake she has made from his remains. She also has a ring set with his birthstone, a vase with handprints from her and Elvis, and a memory bear made from the robe Cordero wore during his final performance in Rock of Ages.

But these keepsakes are not really about the jewelry or the objects themselves. They are about memory, love, and finding a way to keep going without pretending the loss is gone.

Kloots’ story is not a cautionary tale. It is a reminder that the people who would have to keep going without you are worth planning for now, while there is still time.