Tom Parker's widow and new boyfriend

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

The press have started reporting on Kelsey Parker dating a "convicted killer" 8 months after her husband Tom died. She has two very small children. Is it too soon, is it none of our business?

I wouldn't say it is advisable, but that's my own view only.

I imagine she's doing the series in part to provide financial security for her children. I don't think it should make her fair game for the media.

She seemed to have a very close and strong relationship and marriage and they had been together since she was a teenager. I think it's unfair to suggest she's "moving on" when actually we know nothing about the situation, or to suggest it shows her relationship wasn't serious.

She's been through unimaginable pain, discovering her husband had terminal cancer shortly before the birth of their second child. I wish her every happiness.

She’s not that private - she has public insta accounts for her children.

@Shouldershoddy they put themselves in the public eye. (To help Tom & do fundraising), his illness & death was all very public, you can't expect people to stop being interested in how his wife & kids are getting on.

This is one of those stories where the new boyfriend is demonised and the dead husband is revered and elevated to almost sainthood. With lashings of the widow is not respecting the memory of her husband. It's usually men who move on quickly.

There's something about grieving starting when a terminal diagnosis is received. She's young and has two kids.

That said I'd be concerned about someone who got into a fight/threw a punch like that. Would anyone else in similar circumstances be subject to such public scrutiny? No, of course not.

“She said: "I am delighted to share with you that Kelsey Parker: Life After Tom will be on your screens later this year on ITV.

"A six part observational documentary following me and my family over the last six months since Tom’s death.”

Yeah, having her life invaded …. 🙄

This is so true. My FIL married six months after my MIL died after a protracted illness and 30 years of very happy and committed marriage. From what I understand Tom had a long illness and terminal diagnosis. I imagine she's been used to being alone for quite some time before he actually died.

He killed the man when they were both stood outside a pub. He was waiting for a taxi and his victim was waiting for his girlfriend to collect him. As he got into his taxi he wrongly accused the guy of glaring at him for supposedly pinching his taxi, so he walked over and punched him and the poor man fell to his death. Kelsey's boyfriend then left the scene with his friends after admitting later that he knew he'd badly hurt the guy. I'm sure poor Tom wanted Keksey to move on and meet someone new eventually, after all she's only young, but I bet Tom hadn't expected it to be with someone like this guy.

I wish her happiness. She deserves it after the hell she's been through.

She’s chosen to stay in the public eye by having a camera crew follow her around for an ITV series about her post her husbands death. So she will expect some people commenting on her life. She’s been around it all for years. She will know how it works.

Well THAT was confusing.

I thought OP had started a thread about Captain Tom's widow.
Who'd be going some to pull a what - 30 year old? More power to her elbow

On behalf of widows everywhere: it’s no one else’s business. Fuck off thinking you have any right to judge what we’re going through or doing.

I imagine she's doing the series in part to provide financial security for her children.

Im gonna take a wild guess here that she wasn't left a penniless widow.

What I can never understand in situations like this, regardless of a dead husband or not, how can any single parent have time to "date" boyfriends? I really really don't get it. Really it is extreme selfish behaviour, her poor poor children. Disgusting is not a strong enough word.

Leave the poor woman alone.

Jesus fucking Christ. ‘People behave differently to how I want them too, so I can only assume they’re slightly less human than me’. Sorry that your empathy and imagination is so very limited, it must be hard to live that way.

I agree with this, you don’t know the pain we go through and we get judgement for not doing widowhood “right”.

There is no right way of doing it. And it hurts so deeply you have no idea.

ridiculous. Nobody needs to sit at home on their own. She may have family support for babysitting, live in help if she can afford it so she can go out when he r kids are in bed, friends who help her out, meeting someone when her kids are at nursery. Who knows but it's unlikely she's leaving her children home alone. She can have a relationship without involving the other person in her and her children's lives

What?!

It's a bit grim. She also has a series out about her life after Tom apparently. It's all a bit tasteless and attention seeking to me.

It seems a little keen but really, I’ve never been in her position so I shouldn’t really be passing judgement. Human emotions, heartbreak and grief, they’re too complex to apply arbitrary rules to.
As for the ‘killer’ aspect, I certainly wont judge that. Lots of daft young men get in scraps on a night out, this sounds like it went tragically wrong.

Eh? Are you serious or just on a wind up?

Single parents shouldn't date. Wow.

Is that what I said?

No, it's not.

Some people don't love as deeply. We can see that in many instances, not only death, but the ease at which some people can walk away from their spouse and their children to start a fresh new life. It happens all the time. It's common.

Some people don't love as deeply.

Is your imagination so limited that you can't see that?

Yeah, have to make sure we display the precise right amount of misery without making anyone to uncomfortable by actually talking about our grief. Don’t grieve too long, don’t move on too quickly, don’t let the kids forget their dad, don’t be reminding them too much, don’t go out, don’t wallow at home, don’t laugh, don’t get everyone down by seeming miserable. Everyone’s the perfect widow until they actually have to do it.

Of course it is none of our business, but it does seem a poor choice of partner to introduce into the lives of 2 young kids who have just lost their dad.

Oh dear. I clicked on the thread thinking it was about Tom Parker Bowles and I thought "Bloody hell, that was sudden, he was on Masterchef last week."

As you were 😅