Tom Parker’s widow Kelsey Parker reveals next steps after taking wedding ring off
Kelsey said it was time to put her ring in a box and move forward
What did you miss?
Tom Parker’s widow Kelsey has opened up about her decision to remove her wedding ring, telling fans: “I am married to Tom but not in this lifetime.”
The Wanted singer died in March 2022 at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, leaving Kelsey, their daughter Aurelia, four, and son Bodhi, three. Kelsey has now said it is time to put her ring in a box and move forward, as she revealed she was open to finding love again.
What, how, and why?
“I just think for me, I don’t actually know, I just felt this year was the time that I needed to take the wedding ring off,” she said on ITV’s Lorraine. "I am married to Tom but not in this lifetime, he’s not here, he’s not here anymore is he?
"So I’m not actually married to anyone. It just felt that I needed to… I am looking down at it, I am remembering the happy times we had but also that he’s not here with me. I feel like I am a lot clearer this year and I need to focus on myself and my children and just moving forward.”
“And I feel like taking that off is a symbol, but it needs to be in a box now,” she added. “When he was in the hospice he placed his wedding ring on my finger so for me I felt like, ‘I’ve got to keep it on’ but now is the time, it just feels right for me,” added Kelsey.
Host Christine Lampard mentioned that Kelsey was open to moving on and potentially finding love again. And Kelsey replied: “I am 33, I’m 33. I had such an amazing relationship with Tom, I was 19 when I met him and we had such an amazing bond but I am 33, and I have two children.”
Kelsey appeared on Lorraine alongside relationship expert Paul Carrick Brunson, who told her: “You don’t move on from someone who you loved, never. You move on with them, they stay with you, their memory stays with you and they help to guide you to find a new love. It will be a different love, but a new love.”
What else did Kelsey Parker say?
Kelsey also told how she’d had a particularly tough time this Christmas, which she explained was a time of year that Tom loved. “It was really hard this year,” she said. “The first year I think I had put a barrier up and I think that I was in a bit of a bubble and I was in shock. This year hit me really hard, it was so much harder.”
The family headed off on holiday on Boxing Day and Kelsey said it was the “best thing” she could have done. She also said she now feels she needs to focus on herself after everything she has been through. “I do feel like I lost myself because I became Tom’s carer when he became ill,” she said.
“It was all about Tom and then Tom passed away and then who did it become about? My children. That’s what I feel like, this year I have got to put myself first, it needs to be about me. I have given so much to the people that I love but I need to start loving myself a little bit more.”
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