Kelsey Parker has revealed her decision to take off her wedding rings almost two years after the death of husband Tom Parker.
The Wanted singer died aged 33 in March 2022 following a year-and-a-half long battle with stage four glioblastoma brain cancer, leaving behind Parker and their two young children, Aurelia, four, and Bodhi, three.
Since then, his widow, 33, has regularly shared her journey through grief with her followers online, and on Sunday opened up about her latest "painful" decision.
Taking to Instagram, Parker, 33, said she had been "torturing herself" for months over when would be the right time to take off her rings.
Alongside a video montage of pictures of her and her late beloved, Parker penned: "Hi everyone, hope you have had a lovely Sunday.
"I wanted to share something with you all this evening. It’s something I’ve been thinking long and hard about for a while now, and as we end the first week of a new year, I have decided to take off my rings.
"It felt really painful every time I looked at them and I have been torturing myself over when will be the right time. I know now there will never be a right or wrong time, but there does have to come a point in my life when I remove them."
Explaining that it was not a case of wanting to forget her marriage to the Glad You Came singer, she said it was something she felt that she needed to do in order to move on with her life.
She went on to say that she eventually wanted their daughter to have the rings, but for now, was exploring ways how she could use them "to honour my marriage with Tom, while not living in the past," such as wearing them as a necklace.
She continued: "Of course I’ll always be Tom’s, he’ll always be in my heart and I know I will forever be in his, but right now, in this world I’m not married anymore as much as that breaks my heart to admit.
"I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. One day I’d love for Rae to have them, but right now I want to do something special with them. I’m not ready to totally let go of them. I’ve thought about wearing them around my neck or framing them and putting them in the space I create with Tom’s music stuff."
She then appealed to her followers for their thoughts on what she could do with them, adding: "Sometimes I wonder if I’ve left them on too long and other times I think I just expected to wear them forever. How do I protect and honour my marriage to Tom while not living in the past?"
Her post was met with a flurry of support, with some suggesting she have them melted down into a new ring. Others put forward that she hold back her engagement ring for their son when he was older and ready to settle down.
