British actress Jill Halfpenny opened up about her personal life and dealing with the loss of her partner today (July 4) on Lorraine.
The Coronation Street star appeared on the popular talk show to promote her new book.
However, the conversation took a poignant turn as she recounted a “disturbing” conversation with her late partner Matt Janes before his death.
Jill Halfpenny lost partner Matt seven years ago
The discussion touched upon how Jill tragically lost her father to a heart attack at the age of four and how, in a hauntingly similar circumstance, she later faced the loss of her partner, Matt Janes, also to a heart attack.
Reflecting on this painful coincidence, Jill said: “It was eerily, eerily similar. He left the house to go to an exercise class and never came home.”
She continued: “I’d learned from losing my dad that I could not sidestep grief. I had to go through this. Grief is so overwhelming and so powerful, and it feels like you’re a newborn baby and the whole world has changed. I just kept telling myself, it’s okay to feel.”
‘He was giving me a sign’
However, it was a specific conversation with Matt that left a chilling impression on Jill, who shared the memory with host Lorraine Kelly.
“One night we were together on the sofa, and he said: ‘If something were to happen to me, I really would love you to go on to meet someone and to love again.’ It was a disturbing conversation because it felt like he knew something,” Jill recounted.
The actress went on to describe her reaction. “I panicked. I’d seen something in his eyes, and my mum had had a similar conversation with my dad just two days before he died. It all felt just too familiar and too real.”
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