Kelsey Parker has hit back at “vile” trolls who claimed she isn’t “grieving properly” and slammed her for flaunting her new romance with her new boyfriend Will on her social media.
Parker became a widow in March 2022 and two years later she has revealed she is in a new relationship with her tree surgeon partner, who she met while she was fundraising in honour of her late husband.
In lines from her new book – Kelsey Parker: With And Without You – The Sun reported that Kelsey reflected on her journey with grief and finding love again and explained: “I’ve got to a stage in my grief journey where I’ve let that guilt go. Tom would want me to be happy.”
After dating electrician Sean Boggans, Parker decided to take her wedding ring off, something which she first received trolling for and recently explained: “Earlier this year, I decided to take my wedding ring off, and the trolling started again.
“I took my ring off because, for me, it was too painful to look at it every day. It doesn’t mean I’m forgetting Tom.”
Earlier this week, Kelsey shared a snap of her new partner to her Instagram, simply captioned the post with a heart emoji, and received tonnes of support from her followers.
One commented: “You so deserve this happiness. Lost my mum to the same tumour as Tom so have seen how horrendous the journey is. Your smile in this picture is everything Tom would have wanted.”
Another added: “Yes to this! When you love someone, you just want them to be happy, even when you’ve done. Doesn’t stop you loving Tom. It just means your heart has grown even bigger to let someone else in xxxx happy days.”
A third penned: “What a beautiful photo! What a radiant smile! How much happiness represented in a moment. You deserve it. I’m rooting for you a lot and I’ll continue.”
However, others decided to weigh in with their comments and noted they thought she was “rushing” her grieving process, some adding that it was “disrespectful” towards Tom Parker.
Parker hit back at trolls and told The Daily Star: “When you’ve lost someone you love so much, it proves to you that you’ve only got one life. Tom would want me to be happy. You’ve got one life, so you should live it. That’s what he’s taught us.
“When it comes to dating again… what’s it got to do with anyone else? I think whatever makes you happy in life, you’ve got to do it. There is so much stigma on how you should grieve.
“People think you should wear black with a veil over my face and be a walking widow. But that’s not the case. I’m still young and I’ve got kids to look after. There is no rule book for grief out there.
“I’m saying to people: don’t worry about how you’re grieving because there is no right or wrong way to do it. You could be smiling one minute and then deep in emotion the next minute. There is no wrong or right way.”
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Parker married The Wanted star back in 2018 before he was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma just two years later, being given just 12 months to live by doctors.
In September 2021, 11 months on from the diagnosis, Parker sang at the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Royal Albert Hall and even embarked on a Greatest Hits tour with his bandmates when the tumour was confirmed as ‘stable’ in November.
But a close family friend revealed today that Parker’s condition deteriorated rapidly once the tour came to an end, and he died in March 2022.
