It’s been a tough 18 months for Kelsey Parker, who lost her husband Tom in March last year to an aggressive brain tumour. Now the mother-of-two is preparing for her second Christmas without the singer – and it’s proving tough for her.
“I feel like my Christmas spirit has been sucked out of me. I’m not really looking forward to it, for obvious reasons,” says Kelsey speaking exclusively to us at Action For Children’s Starry Night Gala.
Despite her struggles, though, Kelsey, 33, is determined to stay strong for daughter Aurelia, four, and three-year-old son, Bodhi, her children with Tom.
She says, “My kids are excited for Christmas so I want it to be as magical and amazing for them as possible. But it’s still going to be so tough for me because my Christmas is never going to be the same again.
“They’re really looking forward to it – but they have been to see a lot of different Father Christmases, which is confusing for them. So I’m having to explain that the reason they’ve seen so many is that they are Santa’s workers and the real one lives in the North Pole. I’m hoping they are buying it.”
Tom, who was 33 when he died, lives on in his children’s hearts. “They believe in the magic, but they ask me every day about their dad, too, and speak to him all the time,” Kelsey says. “So it is hard.”
She met Tom in 2009, a year before he shot to fame with boy band The Wanted, alongside Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes. The couple tied the knot in 2018 with a ceremony in Surrey, and referred to each other as their soulmates. But in 2020, Tom was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, which he battled for two years.
A small positive in the turmoil of the last two years is that Kelsey has found romance again, with builder Sean Boggans. They struck up a relationship in 2022 shortly after Tom’s death, but reportedly separated in spring, after five months. However, they have since been photographed together and are said to have reconciled, something Kelsey declined to talk about.
Sean was found guilty of manslaughter – which he denied – at the Old Bailey in September 2013. And as Kelsey went public with the romance, the revelation about Sean’s past led to increased trolling of her.
“I don’t know how people can be so mean or negative to me after everything that I’ve been through,” she says. “I also still shine such a massive light on brain tumours and the community and I do my best to get as much funding for it as possible, so I don’t get it.
“Before Tom got diagnosed I didn’t know that they only got 1% of the national spend on cancer research, and brain tumours kill more people under 40 than any other cancer. So it’s educating people about these things that I want to do.”
While Kelsey may dread the festive season, she is getting ready for a fresh chapter as she goes into 2024. “I am looking forward to next year,” she says. “I’m hoping to raise a lot of money for brain tumours. This year I’ve been trying to balance dealing with my grief and learning how to live my life without Tom, and that’s what it’s been all about. So while my grief remains the same now and is still so hard, next year I can focus on raising money.
“We had a very successful Father’s Day football match for Tom last year, so I’m hoping to do that again in 2024. We’ve got some big plans.”
This Christmas, join Action for Children and become a Secret Santa for a vulnerable child – visit iamsanta.org.uk. You could help a vulnerable child feel the magic of Christmas.
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