'We miss him every day': Widow of The Wanted star Tom Parker says his children still make him Father's Day cards
30 June 2023, 20:13 | Updated: 30 June 2023, 20:29
The widow of The Wanted star Tom Parker says their children still make their dad Father's Day cards and his family misses him every day.
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Kelsey Parker marked the second Father's Day without Tom with a charity football match which raised £30,000 for charity.
But she said it was a tough morning for their children, three-year-old Aurelia and two-year-old Bodhi.
"The kids had made cards at nursery for Tom, which they make for their daddy, then we went and put them on his bench," the 33-year-old told The Mirror.
"For me, celebrating Father's Day, it's for my children - it's all for my children, so they can celebrate Tom and that he didn't die in vain. So we can do something good from a rubbish situation."
Tom died aged 33 in March 2022 after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
"It's relentless... we miss him every single day," Kelsey said.
His passing devastated his family, bandmates and fans of the boy band, whose hits include Chasing the Sun and Glad You Came.
Kelsey has just finished writing a book, With And Without You, about the process of grief, which is due to be released later this year.
Read more: Hollywood legend Alan Arkin dies aged 89
"You've just got to do what feels best for you," she explained.
"People deal with it completely differently. But obviously, how we dealt with Tom's illness, we all dealt with that differently to someone else that's got a brain tumour. We went down the positivity route and that massively helped us and it helped Tom."
But she added: "My life is never going to be the same. I'm not the same Kelsey I was three years ago and I am never going to be that person again.
"It has been really tough for me. I've just got to do anything that makes me happy – it's about my happiness. Without a doubt, I approach life differently now. I take each day as it comes – we're not guaranteed tomorrow."
Tom, from Bolton, formed The Wanted with Max George, Jay McGuiness, Nathan Sykes and Siva Kaneswaran in 2009, and they went on to sell over two million albums over five years and scoop a number of awards along the way.
He married Kelsey in 2018 after meeting him at 19 when they went to stage school together.
