Loose Women star Brenda Edwards fought back tears on Monday as she reflected on grief during an emotional segment on the daytime TV programme. Speaking with fellow hosts Kaye Adams, Sue Cleaver and Nadia Sawalha, the panellists discussed grief after the Osbourne family made their first appearance at the Grammys since the death of Ozzy Osbourne.
Brenda Edwards reflected on grief
Opening up about the passing of her son, DJ and entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, in 2022, Brenda admitted she sometimes didn’t want to talk about his death when people asked how she was coping.
“I said, ‘I’m fine’ because I personally didn’t want to talk about it at that time, because I was processing so many different things, still processing so many different things. And it’s only been four years, so it’s like, I didn’t want to put my grief on somebody else, even though they’ve asked the question,” said Brenda.
The actress and singer explained that she sometimes feels people ask because they think they should. Recalling an example from the weekend, when a viewer brought up her loss more than once, Brenda said she would rather be the one to initiate conversations about Jamal when she feels able.
“I can’t say, ‘Okay, you said it once.’ Because I don’t want it to be taken in the wrong way. But it’s like, if I speak about Jamal, then I’ve harnessed my heart and my stomach to be able to speak about him. But if it’s out of the blue, it can’t,” she said.
After the other panellists gave their opinion, Brenda added: “It will never go down well if somebody says, ‘Oh, I’m feeling for you.’ In my personal experience, I have faced that and I find it so comforting to hear stories about Jamal all the time. I love it and I get messages from people and it is really comforting. But there’s such a wave and it seems like, you know, 20 hours out of a 24 hour day, I’m just in a…”
At this point, Brenda paused, took a breath and fought back tears, looking down at the desk as Kaye comforted her.
While Nadia attempted to round off the discussion, Kaye gently said: “Let’s just go to a break. We are very aware that we take a lot out of you when we ask you to speak about these things.”
As Brenda worked to regain her composure, Kaye began previewing what was coming up next before deciding to just cut to a break. “We’ll be back after this, lots more to come.”
If you’ve been affected by grief, you can visit Cruse Bereavement Support (0808 808 1677), Sue Ryder or Samaritans (116 123).
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