Tom Parker’s widow reveals she still feels presence of The Wanted star
The singer died in March after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
Kelsey Parker, widow of The Wanted star Tom Parker, has said she can feel her late husband with her and is determined to be “as strong as possible” for the sake of the couple’s children.
The band member died at a hospice near the couple’s south London home on March 30 at the age of 33, after suffering from an inoperable brain tumour.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women in her first TV interview since his death, the 32-year-old said: “I feel strong, I’m just getting through each day.
“I have the kids. I have to wake up each day, I have to get on with it, just trying to be as strong as possible in a really difficult situation and time for us all.”
The couple met as teenagers and later married before having two children, Aurelia and Bodhi.
When asked by Loose Woman presenter Kaye Adams where she finds her strength, Parker replied: “From within. I have to wake up each day and think ‘Right, come on, you can do it’.
“What would he want me to do? He wouldn’t want me to sit around crying. He’d want me to get on with it.”
She added: “And the kids obviously, they’re not sad. They wake up and they’re happy. ‘What are we doing today?’. We’re going to the park.”
Parker also explained that she has been honest with her two young children. Speaking about her daughter Aurelia, she said: “When Tom went into the hospice, she was really confused.”
She added: “I was leaving to go to the hospice and I just said to her, ‘I’ve got to go to make sure the angels take daddy. The angels are coming to collect him’, which is a really horrible conversation.
“The next day I had to tell her her dad’s dead. This is the advice I got – to be honest.
“I said, ‘Dad’s dead and he’s not coming back’. So she’s still trying to digest that.”
His funeral took place in Queensway, Petts Wood, in south-east London on April 20.
The singer’s coffin was carried by his bandmates from The Wanted, as Champagne Supernova by Oasis played to fans gathered outside.
Jay McGuiness, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes served as pallbearers in the procession into St Francis of Assisi church.
Parker also revealed she believes the singer sends her signs to show he’s still with her, which she asked him to do while he was in the hospice.
She said: “He has given me so many signs… car alarms go off at four in the morning. I’m like, ‘Not four in the morning, Tom’. I do talk to him and that’s a release as well. I can feel him there.”
Speaking about her 13-year relationship with Tom, she explained: “The fact I met Tom at 19 in a really tough industry. We were soulmates, we loved each other so much, he was my best friend.”
She added: “I found the love of my life at the age of 19 and I’ve spent all these years with him. How lucky am I to say I found love? I was so in love with him.”
She also revealed she is determined to preserve her late husband’s legacy.
“It’s about the kids and learning and celebrating him,” she said.
“I want to be able to talk about their dad… Even the final moments were magical. That’s the sort of person he was.”
She added: “Did I think I was going to be a widow at 32 with two children? It’s so shocking.
“But I have to live my life and that’s what Tom would have wanted me to do.”
Loose Women airs every weekday on ITV at 12.30pm.
