Tom Parker’s widow, Kelsey Parker, is opening up about experiencing grief once again after the loss of her baby.
Kelsey, 34, announced in June that her son, Phoenix, was “born sleeping,” referring to experiencing a stillbirth. (Kelsey announced she was expecting baby No. 3 with boyfriend Will Lindsay in January.)
“I didn’t think I’d be living a relived experience, first losing Tom and now losing Phoenix,” Kelsey told the U.K.’s Mirror newspaper in an interview published on Thursday, August 7. “But I think with any grief and loss, you have to take each day as it come and work through it.”
Kelsey first experienced the loss of her husband Tom, best known as one-fifth of boy band The Wanted, in March 2022 after he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He revealed he had an inoperable stage-four glioblastoma in September 2020.
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Kelsey said the loss of little Phoenix has been hard on her two children with Tom — Aurelia, 6, and Bodhi, 4 — who are still mourning the loss of their father.
“For the kids, it just breaks my heart for them because obviously we wanted the happy ever after and to have Phoenix, but that didn’t pan out for us,” the podcaster shared. “I spoke about it like I did with Tom, I just told them the truth. I think that’s all you can do with your children, in anything you’re going through, be honest. Because I think people underestimate their children and what their children can cope with. Children have little ears and they listen to a lot of conversations.”
According to Kelsey, experiencing the losses of their father and little brother has made little Aurelia and Bodhi comfortable with the subject of death.
“I think for them, it actually makes it easier because they’ve gone through loss, they understand what death is,” she said. “We’re sort of almost like the Addams Family because we’ve gone through so much death and darkness. The children are very aware.”
She added, “Aurelia likes to tell people that her dad’s died and her brother’s died. She will openly say it, but it’s other people’s reactions. They can’t cope with how honest and open we are.”
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Kelsey also revealed that Tom’s parents, Noreen and Nigel, have rallied around her since she lost Phoenix in June.
“I call Noreen all the time, we always talk,” she told the Mirror. “We spoke to each other every day since losing Phoenix and she was just as devastated as as every family member because she wanted that happiness for me and the kids.”
