Celebrities Speak Bluntly About Their Losses

A picture of Steve and Bindi showing
their love for each other.
credit: www.ripsteve.com

It’s a good thing when celebrities speak out openly about their feelings around loss, reflection and how they grieve. Their candid talk about personal experiences reminds us that, like everyone else, they too are severely impacted by loss. But more importantly, celebrities are now coming out to say exactly how it is they feel — however bluntly. Their words are exposing us to the new contemporary beliefs about the grieving process — it’s not what we have been taught to believe all these years. We now understand that whatever you feel is okay and offering “socially apt” advice is not appropriate. Celebrities are teaching us how to deal with the loss of a parent in this new age.

“I remember after we lost Dad, so many adults came up to me and said, ‘Honey, time heals wounds.’ That is the biggest lie you will ever hear. It doesn’t.”

Take for example Bindi Irwin, the 16 year old daughter of Steve Irwin who hosted the popular wildlife documentary TV show “The Crocodile Hunter.” In 2006, Steve Irwin was accidentally killed during a TV series filming session when a stingray pierced his chest with a barb. Bindi recently expressed her painfully honest thoughts about the death of her father to People Magazine. “I remember after we lost Dad, so many adults came up to me and said, ‘Honey, time heals wounds.’ That is the biggest lie you will ever hear. It doesn’t.”

Moby with his mother during the summer.
credit: www.moby.com/journal

Sting has spoken openly about his loss as a theme in many of his albums. Back in 1991, he released ‘The Soul Cages” mourning the loss of both of his parents. “When you lose both your parents, you realize you’re an orphan. Sadness is a good thing, too, to feel a loss so deeply. You mustn’t let people insist on cheering you up. I’m very proud of that album.” In a recent interview, Sting, now 62, is still exploring the profound grief of his father’s death. “In our sixties, how do we face this imponderable idea that we are not going to exist anymore? We make art. We tell stories. We have to face it, to tell it.”

In the past year, Moby is another celebrity who’s spoken out about the loss of his parents. When he was two, his father was killed by a drunk driver. Contrary to what others would have expected of his missing a father in his life. “Everyone else I knew,” he said “had two parents and I didn’t …I didn’t think it was particularly tragic or strange.” His mother then raised him as a single mom and Moby says her death was more of losing a “really close friend” than his mother.

Some of the truths we are learning through these various famous people are to not give advice unless we have had such an experience or have the tools as to what to really say.

Some of the truths we are learning through these various famous people are to not give advice unless we have had such an experience or have the tools as to what to really say. That losing a parent may not impact us all the same and let someone grieving feel the pain. Feeling that pain is part of the healing process.

As Bindi describes her own personal grieving process, “that kind of sadness never goes away. It’s like losing a piece of your heart that you never get back.”

As celebrities speak out about how to deal with the loss of a parent, we also learn they are not all eye candy and fluff.

Celebrities we have covered in past posts:

• Sting Sings About Dying in the Last Ship. The 62-year old former frontman for the Police talks candidly about death and grief.
• A Complicated Grief: Moby Opens up About Parents’ Deaths. The American Artist tells The Guardian how the regrets of the dying influenced his upbringing, family values and views on death.