Kelsey Parker appeared on Loose Women this afternoon to speak about the process of grieving her stillborn son Phoenix, as she shared her daughter’s heartbreaking reaction
Kelsey Parker has revealed the heartbreaking comment her daughter Aurelia made when she broke the devastating news that baby Pheonix had died.
The podcast host and widow of The Wanted’s Tom Parker sadly announced her third child was born stillborn at 39 weeks in June. Kelsey looked forward to welcoming her first child with partner Will Lindsay, who she found love with two years after Tom’s tragic death from an inoperable brain tumor in 2022.
Kelsey Parker announced the happy news in January, but tragically, five months later, the 35-year-old broke the devastating news that the little boy who they had named Phoenix, was stillborn. She then took time away from both work and social media.
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The star appeared on Loose Women to talk about her grief during Tuesday’s episode, in which spoke about the heartbreaking moment she had to tell Aurelia, six, and Bodhi, four, that the family had experienced death again with their younger sibling.
“Time has been really tough,” she said. “Because Aurelia’s six, I wasn’t giving her the right answer to what she wanted. I said, ‘Pheonix has died and Pheonix is with daddy now.’
“And she was like, ‘I hate dad, why does dad keep taking everyone?’ So that wasn’t the right answer. Again, you’re trying to find out for your children, what’s the right way to navigate this?
“And I think with my little Bodhi, he’s been through so much. I was 35 weeks pregnant when Tom was diagnosed, he was only 18 months when Tom died. I’m his hero, so as long I’m okay, he’s okay. But with Aurelia, she’s beyond her years.”
Earlier this year, sitting down to speak with Christine Lampard on Lorraine for the first time since the devastating loss, Kelsey opened up on how she grief once again with her two little ones.
“It’s being honest. It’s telling them facts. Because I never want them to feel like I’ve not been honest and years later they say, ‘Oh but mum, you didn’t tell me this and you didn’t tell me that!'” she said.
“They’ve lost their dad, they know their dad’s with the angels now, so we told them, ‘Phoenix has gone with your daddy,'” Kelsey revealed she told her children as she shared the devastating news.
The star emphasised how important she felt it was to talk about grief, after she took time off social media to spend time with her family and allowing herself to grieve.
On this afternoon’s Loose Women, Kelsey explained how she went straight back to work following Tom’s tragic death, but this time, she made sure to take the time to grieve for herself.
“You need that moment for you. And I’ve listened to myself this time. I did rush back into work when Tom passed. But I listened to myself this time, and I’m actually proud that I took some time to sit with this.”
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