Celebrities talking about grief & how they deal with it
Grief is a universal feeling. Yet still, many of us find it too 'taboo' to talk about.
It's no secret that losing a loved one is one of (if not the most) challenging things in life and despite what some may think, there is no right or wrong way of dealing with it.
"It's not a mental health problem... It’s not rocket science, and we should be wary of applying an orthodox approach to the individual experience of grief,” said Sir Simon Wessely (the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists) in an interview with The Guardian.
His comments were made in April after Prince Harry spoke candidly about coming to terms with his mother, Princess Diana's death, which opened up a much needed dialogue about grief within the media.
Similarly, the celebrities below have all opened up about their own experiences with grief in hopes of comforting others...
Getty ImagesPrince Harry on Princess Diana - “No child should be asked to do that.”
In his first candid interview about his mother, Princess Diana's death back in April, Harry told the Telegraph: “My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television. I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
He then explained that he sought counselling after 20 years of bottling up his grief, saying: "It was 20 years of not thinking about it and then two years of total chaos. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I just didn’t know what was wrong with me."
Getty ImagesMichelle Williams on Heath Ledger- "I'm trying to be respectful of the absence. I'm not trying to fill it up"
In a 2008 interview, Michelle Williams discusses the loss of her ex-fiancé and father to her daughter Matilda Rose, Heath Ledger. Talking about the actor, who passed away three years prior, she explained: "Very obviously, for me and for her, there's a hole in our life. Of course the natural inclination is to want to fill it and make it disappear, but what I've come to recently is that it's impossible. Nothing will fit in that hole because what we want back we can't get, which is this person."
She added, "I'm not going to rush anything and scamper around like a mad person and make myself crazy. I'm trying to be respectful of the absence. I'm not trying to fill it up. It is what it is."
Getty ImagesLea Michele on Cory Monteith - "There is an empowerment that comes with grief
Speaking on the Ellen Degeneres Show in her first interview since the death of her boyfriend and Glee co-star, Cory Monteith, Lea said: “What people also don't understand is that going to work is no harder than being at home and being in the house and opening up a closet and seeing a pair of shoes. There's this is grief goes with you everyday whatever you're doing—when there are great moments, when there are hard moments—so I'd rather be at work with the people who I love that are going through it."
“My mom has experienced a lot of loss in her life and she told me at one point, there is an empowerment that comes with grief—at some point you find it. It's very hard but you will find it, and I think at a certain point you can choose to sort of fall from this or you can choose to rise. And that's what I'm just trying to do my best for him, because I know that that's what he would have," she added.
WENNKhloe Kardashian on her father- "I just wanted to believe it was all just a bad dream"
In her book, Strong Looks Better Naked, Khloe Kardashian explains: “When I saw my father in his casket, I completely fell apart. I don’t remember the details, but apparently I was an emotional wreck, and I’m told that I was so distraught I actually passed out.
“I refused to believe my father was gone. I just wanted to believe it was all just a bad dream.”
She later revealed, “When my father passed away, I was so young. I was 19. I didn't realise. I knew he was dying, but I didn't take advantage of that time. I think now just seizing the day and every minute you have with someone.. that's a blessing.”
Getty ImagesDemi Lovato on her dad - "I wanted to write about it, I wanted to process it"
In a serious of video clips posted on her Youtube channel ahead of the released of her 2015 album Confident, Demi opened up about a track called 'Father' based on her relationship with her father, who died in 2013. In it, she explains: "I was very conflicted when he passed, because he was abusive. He was mean, but he wanted to be a good person. And he wanted to have his family, and when my mom married my stepdad, he still had this huge heart where he said, ‘I’m so glad that [he's] taking care of you and doing the job that I wish I could do."
"He knew he wasn't capable of raising a family and it was because of his mental illness. To know that it wasn't truly his fault really was saddening to me. I wanted to write about it, I wanted to process it."
Getty ImagesJoe Biden on his wife, daughter & son - "No parents should be pre-deceased by their sons or daughters"
In a 2012 speech, former US Vice President Joe Biden - who lost his first wife and 13-month-old daughter in 1972 following a tragic car accident, and his son 46-year-old, Beau, in 2015 - got candid about grief, saying: "No parents should be pre-deceased by their sons or daughters. I, unfortunately, have that experience, too... I have to tell you. I used to resent people. They'd come up to me and say, 'Joe, I know how you feel.' I knew they meant well. I knew they were genuine. But you knew they didn't have any damn idea."
"Just when you think you're going to make it, you're driving down the road and you pass a field and you see a flower, and it reminds you. Or you hear a tune on the radio. Or you just look up into the night and, you know, you think, 'Maybe I'm not going to make it, man.' Because you feel at that moment the way you felt the day you got the news."
Getty ImagesMichael Jordan on his dad’s death- "I just kept my head high and looked at the good of it"
In an interview on The Blitz Sports Network, Michael Jordan discussed his father's passing: “It was a very difficult moment for me and somehow I just kept my head high and looked at the good of it - the time that we used to spent [together] and the education that he gave me. I thought about all the things that he used to say to me like turn a negative into a positive, and here I was dealing with him in that way. It was tough.”
Getty ImagesRio Ferdinand on his wife - "I wish I could have said more"
Ahead of his BBC documentary, Rio Ferdinand opened up about the death of his wife and his regrets: "I wish I could have said more, I wish I could have done more... you hurt yourself. I would just shut her down and close the conversation, I didn't want to get emotional.
"Without talking, you miss that opportunity to have that idea about what your partner would have wanted, and that's a tormenting thing."
Rio added that he's learnt "talking is so important": "My children need to see me talk and show emotion. Talking doesn't make the pain go away but it does help."
Getty ImagesKanye West on his mother- "I had to be humbled"
Kanye West discussed the impact of his mother’s death on him with Q Magazine in a typical Kanye fashion, explaining, "I had to get beat up, I had to lose, I had to be humbled, and I had to realise my position.”
He continues, “I made a mountain for myself, I went to the mountain top, and I never touched God. You have to recalibrate and understand that you’re not a God in any way other than the fact that God is inside us. I am here to serve God.”
Getty ImagesSylvester Stallone on his son's death
Opening up for the first time, Sylvester Stallone revealed in an interview with Good Morning America: “If you have good friends and your family’s support, it's just something that’s a horrible situation but...hopefully it will heal and you try to get through it but it's something that is a reality in life.”
He added, “It's important to get back and try to start reliving your life, otherwise you can go into a spiral.”
Getty ImagesJennifer Hudson on her mother, brother and 7-year old nephew- "You don't know how strong you are until you are placed in that kind of moment."
Six years after her sister's estranged husband murdered her mother, brother and 7-year old nephew, Jennifer Hudson spoke to The Guardian's Observer about her heartache: "‘If I close my eyes, I can almost remember what it was like, what I was like, 15 years ago. I was at home in Chicago, still in high school, singing in church, living with my family.
"I have definitely seen the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows," the actress/singer continued. "You don't know how strong you are until you are placed in that kind of moment."
"But, it feels like another Jennifer life. I don’t look the same. I’m a mother now. So many things have changed. I sometimes think the only constant is my voice. That hasn’t gone away."
Getty ImagesWhoopie Goldberg on her mother - "When people pass away, you realise how much you depend on them"
In a clip from Oprah's Master Class in 2014, Whoopie opened up about her mother's death, saying: “I realised a couple of days after she passed that no one would ever love me like that again. I wouldn’t put that kind of sparkle in anyone’s eye, you know? And you kind of know that that person - [parents] are your first loves. Those are the first people you tell your secrets to, those are the people that hold you when it's scary. That's a big deal, so that I felt."
“That’s the thing about when people pass away, you don’t realise, how much you depended on them.”
