Annabel Croft clearing out late husband's belongings 16 months after his death
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Annabel Croft has shared that she has started to clear out her late husband Mel Coleman's belongings, 16 months after his death.
The former tennis ace and Strictly Come Dancing star hosted This Morning's bereavement phone-in again on Tuesday, where she talked about the "rain shower" of grief brought on by taking Coleman's shoes to the tip this week.
Croft also opened up on feeling "devastated" at losing the future they had planned together and said that the pain of thinking about his death was "like a dagger going through me".
What, how, and why?
Annabel Croft joined This Morning's agony aunt Deirdre Sanders once again on Tuesday to host the show's grief phone-in.
Both women have taken calls from viewers before where they shared their own advice on dealing with bereavement after the deaths of their husbands. Croft's husband of 30 years Coleman died in May 2023, just eight weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
Croft, who came fourth in last year's Strictly, talked to one caller about the importance of being able to cry and revealed she had only just started to clear out Coleman's belongings.
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She said: "I call them rain showers, and when they come I just let it all out. Actually, I had one yesterday, I went to the tip to take my husband's shoes, which was the first time I started to clear his things - it's been about 16 months now.
"I just let those tears come out and I feel so much better when they come out and they're gone. Grief will go on for a very, very long time, I don't think it will ever leave any of us and I think it's so important for all of us to share our grief."
Croft described her feelings of grief as being "like a physical pain", saying: "Sometimes I can be driving the car and I feel like a dagger is going through me. It's like a physical pain, it's the shock of oh my goodness, I'm never going to speak to him again, I'm never going to hear his laughter."
She also shared her "devastation" at not being able to carry out their plans for the future, but offered some advice on how to cope with loss.
"In my sporting days, everything was always about living in the moment and for so much of my married life, Mel and I talked about the future every single day," she said. "We always were looking to the future and what would it be about. Of course, that future isn't going to be there any more so I'm having to wrangle with that every single day.
"I'm so devastated that we don't have that future any more, but I keep trying to replace those thoughts with all of the wonderful memories we had together."
Croft added: "I constantly bring up Mel's name. I am never, ever afraid to bring up Mel's name, I want people to talk about him...I never want people to feel awkward about bringing up his name."
The former tennis pro talked during last year's Strictly about how much dancing had helped her to cope, and said during the phone-in that she still relied on exercise to lift her mood.
She said: "I go and do the walk that Mel and I used to do and I get out of bed in the morning and have a focus. I have a shower, I put some make-up on, I try to look how I would have looked if Mel was around. I always think about what Mel would have liked and he would not want me to be wallowing and he would not want me to be sad. He would want me to be positive about every single day."
What did Annabel Croft say the last time she hosted This Morning's phone-in?
This isn't the first time that Croft has lent a listening ear to grieving viewers - she also helped to host a phone-in earlier this year where she admitted she had been unable to bring herself to collect Coleman's ashes.
During her This Morning appearance in February - nearly a year after Coleman died - one caller said that she had had to send a relative to collect her husband's ashes and Croft admitted that she still had not been able to collect Coleman's ashes, either.
She said: "If it's any consolation, I have not picked up my husband's ashes yet and I'm eight, nine months in. It was just the finality of knowing that my husband who was such a vibrant person, a vibrant character with such a great sense of humour, was suddenly going to be in this urn or this box and I still can't bring myself to do it.
"Sometimes I'm driving round in my car and I'm quite near the funeral directors and I think, should I just go and park the car and pick him up? But I just can't do it."
This Morning airs on ITV1 at 10am on weekdays.
