Kym Marsh suffered from "very bad anxiety" when her father passed away.
Kym Marsh lost her dad David (centre) in January 2024
The 48-year-old actress lost her dad David passed away in January at the age of 78 following a long battle with prostate cancer and recalled that the grief would "bite at [her] throat" and left her having anxiety attacks, although she has learned to "control" things in recent times.
She told The Sun newspaper: "When Dad passed away, I had a bad time and my anxiety was very bad,” she explains. “It was like it was biting at my throat the entire time. But I haven’t had an anxiety attack for a while now.
“I do struggle sometimes still, but I recognise it and I take time to deal with those feelings. I have learned to control it.
“I know when my anxiety is flaring up. I take myself away and meditate or just sit and be still.
“I think anxiety is within us all and you just have to learn how to cope with it and deal with it.”
The former Hear'Say singer left her long-running role as Michelle Connor on ITV's 'Coronation Street' after more than a decade on the soap opera and went on to host 'Morning Live' for the BBC.
The 'Waterloo Road' star remembered that her father would arrive at the set and constantly tell her co-host Gethin Jones that she owed him a five pound note as a running joke and, shortly after he passed away, she found one in her car and buried it with him.
She said: "Every time Dad came on 'Morning Live', he would say to Gethin, ‘She’s still not given me that fiver’. It was a constant running joke. Shortly after Dad passed away, I randomly found a five pound note in my car. I don’t know if people believe in stuff like this but I don’t know how it got there. I put that in the coffin with Dad and I said, ‘There you go, Dad, I’ve given you your fiver now’. Whether you believe in it or not, it’s not wrong to take comfort from something.
"I found a fiver and I thought, ‘That’s my dad’. It gives you something to hold on to and it gives you hope, all those little reminders. Or sometimes I find myself in a moment and I smile to myself about a memory."
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