Love, Interrupted – Simon Thomas

Published by: Trigger Publishing
Pages: 200
Date released: 20/06/2019
Date read: 19/07/2019

Simon Thomas (former Blue Peter presenter, and for so long, the face of Sky Sports Football) reveals how grief nearly destroyed him in his heart-breaking memoir.

When Simon lost the woman he had loved for 16 years, the future he’d imagined for their happy family disappeared for ever. Gemma died from acute myeloid leukaemia, just three days after being diagnosed.

In ‘Love, Interrupted’, Simon is brutally honest about his journey through grief, and opens up about how close he came to ending his own life. Simon didn’t know how to carry on without Gemma; he just knew that, for the sake of his eight-year old son, he had to find a way.

‘Love, Interrupted’ is a moving story of love, loss, faith and family.

*TRIGGER WARNING – Mentions cancer, death, alcoholism and suicide*

Like a lot of people, I don’t watch Sky Sports. Apart from tennis and rugby, I am not overly interested in sport, and therefore, was not aware of who Simon was until his devastating story broke in the news at the tale end of 2017.

One month after this, I lost my father at just 57. Losing a parent at just 24 was heartbreaking, let alone at 8 like dear old Ethan had to deal with. 6 months prior to my dad falling ill, I lost my Nan who was like my best friend. And just 18 months later, I lost a childhood friend. I have experienced grief in all its guises and each time it has ripped my heart out and threatened to destroy my world. Dealing with grief is one of the hardest things to have to experience, let alone relive it in order to write it down (I know, I’ve tried). Simon has poured his heart out perfectly in this devastating memoir.

This book isn’t just about a husband losing his wife – although that is the backbone of the story. Instead, it focusses on male mental health, on suicide, on coping mechanisms such as alcoholism, on faith, and on dealing with all of this at the same time as being in the public eye. Grieving privately is difficult enough, so I cannot even imagine what it is like to have to grieve whilst raising a grieving son, whilst having cameras in your face.

It is true what they say, things to get better with time. You will never forget the person you lost; they will always be part of your life. But whereas your grief once took over your life, your life eventually starts to grow around it.