Loose Women’s Charlene White breaks down in floods of tears and comforted by co-stars in heartbreaking moment on air
LOOSE Women star Charlene White was left in floods of tears as she opened up about a topic close to her heart.
The ITV newsreader became emotional as she spoke about her late mum Dorrett, who sadly died at age 42 after suffering with bowel cancer when Charlene was just 16 years old.
During a segment focusing on grief, Charlene said: “Sometimes you can plan to deal with deal on a certain anniversary – but it can also creep up on you other times.”
Charlene recalled her own experience and shared: “There was one particular moment for me when the grief was overwhelming for me when I first got pregnant with Alfie.
“I was fine about it, I took the test and I was completely fine.
“But there was a moment when I started showing and I was in the bath and I was looking at this little bump in my belly and it suddenly hit me, that I was going to have to learn to be a mother when I was motherless.
“I was a mum to my brother and sister – but she taught me how to do that part of it.
“But I didn’t know how to mother a newborn and it suddenly hit me, that the one person that I wanted and needed to help guide me through this massive moment in my life, wasn’t there.
“When I was in the bath, that’s the one moment that I completely lost it and I cried and cried and cried and I couldn’t stop because grief sort of presents itself when you least expect it.
“When I gave birth to Alfie, it’s the realisation that your mum is the only person you are physically connected to because we come from our mum’s.
“There were so many wonderful women in my life who wanted to be that missing part and I think I pushed them away, because the reality is…no one knows me like my mum.
“So if I needed help my mum would just know, if I was upset, my mum would just know – because we’re connected to them from inside.
“As much as they wanted to help, I needed to learn to do this by myself and has hard as that is, I have no choice.
“I would feel jealous for those who had kids and had their mum’s.”
The heartbreaking topic became too much for Charlene and she broke down in floods of tears.
The star sobbed: “Sorry…I didn’t expect to still get upset about that stuff.”
Her fellow panellist members including Judi Love, Olivia Attwood and Linda Robson rushed to comfort the star and give her a tissue.
Charlene has also previously opened up about her heartbreak.
The star, who was just 16 when her mum Dorette was diagnosed, recalled whilst talking to the Daily Mail : “She told me she was sick while we were cooking one Sunday. She said, ‘I have to start having some treatment.
“They found some blood in my stool but it’s nothing to worry about.
“Looking back, she and Dad protected us from the worst but never hid the truth. I think she knew she wasn’t going to make it. Almost from the day she told us, she started teaching me how to cook the family meals.”
Charlene is now a patron of the charity Bowel Cancer UK and continues to open up about her mother’s story in hopes it will “open up the conversation a little bit more”.