For the kids, it breaks heart. We all just wanted our Phoenix

Grieving Kelsey Parker has sometimes struggled to get out of bed after the loss of her baby son.

- BY MIA O'HARE

The widow of boyband star Tom Parker is taking each day as it comes after announcing in June that her third child was stillborn at 39 weeks.

Kelsey, 35, had hoped to have her first child with partner Will Lindsay, with whom she found love two years after The Wanted singer Tom's tragic brain cancer death aged just 33 in 2022.

She announced the pregnancy in January, but five months later she broke the sad news that the little boy, named Phoenix, was stillborn.

In her first interview since the tragedy, Kelsey says: "I didn't think I'd be having a relived experience, first losing Tom and now losing Phoenix.

"But I think with any grief and loss, you have to take each day as it comes and work through it."

About one in every 250 births results in a stillbirth, according to the NHS.

Kelsey, who is mum to Tom's daughter Aurelia, six, and son Bodhi, four, says her little ones have had to come to terms with death once again.

"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," Kelsey says.

The mum said when it came to breaking the tragic news to Aurelia and Bodhi so soon after they had lost their father, she used her first encounter with grief to guide her through the family's latest heartbreak.

"I spoke about it like I did with Tom, I just told them the truth," she says. "I think that's all you can do with your children, just 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."