The Year After: How Kelly Rizzo Got the Green Light to Love Again

When you lose someone, the question of moving forward isn’t just emotional—it’s complicated by what everyone around you thinks you should do. Kelly Rizzo, 46, faced that exact tension after her husband Bob Saget’s death in January 2022, but instead of rushing into anything or shutting everyone out, she did something refreshingly honest: she asked for permission.

During a Monday, May 18 appearance on the“Girls Gotta Eat”podcast, Rizzo opened up about her deliberate, respectful approach to dating again. She’d set herself a hard boundary of one year before even considering it—anything sooner felt“a little too soon.”But boundaries are one thing; blessings are another. When Jeff Ross and John Mayer came over to her house on the first anniversary of Saget’s death (along with his nephew Adam), the conversation turned exactly to that question. Ross, the comedian who’d known Saget for years, didn’t dance around it:“Kel, elephant in the room, we got to talk about it. When are you going to start dating again?”Mayer’s response was gentler but equally supportive—whenever she was ready, it was okay.

Two months after that conversation, around the 14-month mark, Rizzo began feeling the weight of loneliness in a new way. She wanted to“feel alive again”and worried that potential suitors saw her as permanently“off limits.”But before she took any real steps, she sat down with Bob’s daughters—Aubrey, 39, Lara, 36, and Jennifer, 33 (from Saget’s marriage to ex-wife Sherri Kramer)—and told them she was thinking about easing back into the world. Their response?“We want you to be happy”and“Our dad would want you to be happy.”It wasn’t permission she needed, exactly, but blessing—and she got it.

That respect and care clearly shaped what came next. Rizzo went public with boyfriend Breckin Meyer in early 2024, and throughout their relationship, she’s spoken warmly about how he’s honored her grief rather than rushed past it. In an exclusive chat with Us Weekly in November 2024, she reflected on something that might sound strange: the difference between“heavenly Bob”and“earthly Bob.”The version she was married to would have lost his mind at the thought of her with someone else. But the version she believes is at peace now?“Heavenly Bob wants me to be happy. I feel, like, if he could have picked anyone for me, it would have been Breckin because he really respected Breckin a lot and really liked him a lot and they really liked each other.”

That’s not a convenient story she told herself—it’s a framework that respects both the marriage she had and the life she gets to live now. Saget died at age 65 from blunt head trauma after an accidental fall. His loss devastated everyone close to him, and Rizzo’s choice to honor his memory while also honoring herself feels like the right balance.