My kids are my saving grace... they get me out of bed in the morning

Kelsey Parker, widow of The Wanted's Tom Parker, tells LISA SALMON how her kids and spirituality helped her cope with her husband's death and her son's stillbirth

- LISA SALMON

KELSEY PARKER has suffered more tragedy in her young life than most people do in a lifetime.

The entrepreneur and podcaster endured the nightmare of seeing her husband, The Wanted singer Tom Parker, battle and eventually die from a brain tumour at the age of just 33, three years ago.

And after finding love again with tree surgeon Will Lindsay, she became pregnant - but her happiness was destroyed in June when her baby, Phoenix, was stillborn just a week before his due date.

Yet despite such heartbreak, Kelsey, 35, is finding the strength to carry on, for the sake of her children Aurelia, aged six, and Bodhi, four, and through her spirituality.

"My spirituality helps so much, because if I didn’t have this, I don’t know how I would get through a day," she reveals.

"I feel Phoenix, and I look for the signs, and I feel like he's with me and the kids all the time. I am so happy that I found spirituality, because that's helped me through this massively. And I think that if I didn't find that on the journey with Tom, I would be so lost right now."

Kelsey, who was in a relationship with Tom for 13 years and married him four years before his death in 2022, says her children are what make her carry on.

"Even with Phoenix, I had to get up the next day and be a mum," she says.

"My kids are my saving grace... they get me out of bed in the morning. They've been through so much - they're four and six and they've lived such a life already, that life has to continue for them."

Life has to go on without their father, of course but what have they been told about what happened to him and their baby brother?