It was love at first sight,' Pat Neely breaks silence about his new love after divorce from Gina

After four long years, Pat Neely finally broke his silence about the status of his love life since his divorce from his wife Gina.

Pat Neely, the former star of the Food Network's "Down Home with the Neelys", divorced from his wife and co-star Gina Neely four years ago, and he has not publicly spoken up about what exactly happened, until now.

According to the 54-year-old who used to run his family's Neely's Bar-B-Que since he was 23-years-old, his divorce was a challenging time for him and he was absolutely devastated. He revealed during an exclusive interview with People Magazine that he never agreed to any interviews about his separation since he never knew how to explain it.

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“At the time, I was hurting. I was devastated. And I didn’t have the words to explain it. It was a challenging time, but it’s a chapter that has long passed me.”

Pat and Gina were together for more than two decades, and he reveals that it was his ex-wife that wanted a divorce. Last March, the former Mrs. Neely revealed that although they seemed to be happy, bubbly, and affectionate in their TV show, it wasn't like that at all in real life.

While their relationship had to end, Pat chooses to focus on their better memories, including filming 11 seasons of one of the most top-rated shows at one point.

“One of the things that I’ll always cherish about Down Home with the Neelys was that I had an opportunity to get on television every day and invite people into our home. And I was able to share that with my high school sweetheart, a woman I truly loved, and to be me. I never had to act.”

Although his wish of growing old with Gina didn't happen, he accepted Gina's request to separate. The couple shared two children, Shelbi, 23, and Spenser, 29.

Now, Neely has since moved on and is married to Tamika Parks and he claims it was "love at first sight".

The two co-parent Tamika's 5-year-old son from another relationship, and their daughter, Eriel, 3 months.

While he kept his relationship under wraps in the past few years, he is now ready to share his beautiful family to the world, especially since he is set to head back to work next year as a culinary consultant for an Atlanta-based franchise called "This Is It! BBQ & Seafood".

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