Kelsey Parker announces she is pregnant with ‘rainbow baby’ one year after stillbirth
Kelsey Parker has announced that she is pregnant with boyfriend Will Lindsay – a year on from her stillbirth.
The 36-year-old podcaster, who is the widow of the late singer Tom Parker from The Wanted who died of brain cancer in 2022, shared the news of her pregnancy on Instagram on Sunday (31 May).
In the short clip, she and Lindsay can be seen unveiling a sonogram. The hands of her children Bodhi and Aurelia, whom she shares with Parker, also feature in the video.
The announcement follows a year after Parker went through a devastating stillbirth, which saw her baby boy Phoenix “born sleeping” at 39 weeks.
“A year ago next month, we lost our beautiful baby boy Phoenix,” Parker wrote in the caption. “And somehow, through all the heartbreak, it feels like Tom and Phoenix have sent us another little gift from heaven, our little rainbow baby.”
Susanna Reid was among the celebrities to share their well wishes, writing: “Oh this is so amazing – all the love in the world. Congratulations.”
TV presenter Anna Williamson added: “Beautiful news. Congratulations to you both.”
Parker has previously been candid about the heartbreaking circumstances of her stillbirth last year.
During an appearance on Good Morning Britain earlier this month, she said she was treated like a criminal in the moments after her baby’s death.
Due to how quickly the delivery happened, Parker said that it was not possible for her midwife to get there in time.
“We had her on FaceTime, and Phoenix was born and he was sleeping,” she said. “You could just see that he was no longer with us.”
She went on to recall how Phoenix was taken away in an ambulance. “The police arrived and they said it was a crime scene, but became I had no one present, a midwife, there was no handover, so the ambulance and paramedics, I don’t know… they just came in,” she said. “it was awful. My children were there.”
Parker was eventually taken to A&E where she was made to sit in “the maternity ward where people were delivering babies” with a police officer waiting outside the hospital room.
“I get so emotional when I actually think about it, taking myself back to that, I get goosebumps because I’m just so upset and angry with how they treated me,” she said. “And I pleaded.”
Calling Lindsay her “saving grace”, Parker said she had to show video footage of the birth to show officers evidence of what had happened.
She has since had a meeting with the ambulance service who apologised, explaining that the paramedics had not seen a stillborn baby before.
The Met Police responded with a statement reading: “We understand that this is a deeply traumatic experience, we acknowledge that referring to the address as a crime scene was inappropriate and that the family could and should have been treated in a more sensitive way. A detective inspector has offered to meet with the family alongside a child bereavement nurse.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands on 0808 164 3332 or email helpline@sands.org.uk. The helpline is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, and until 9.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
You can also find bereavement support at The Lullaby Trust by calling 0808 802 6868 or emailing support@lullabytrust.org.uk.
To contact Petals to enquire about the charity’s counselling services, you can call 0300 688 0068 or email counselling@petalscharity.org.
