Alexandra Burke revealed she has suffered “major anxiety” at the hands of the coronavirus crisis as lockdown restrictions means she can’t visit her late mother’s grave.
The 2008 X Factor winner made the devastating confession during a candid chat with I Am Enough’s Vas J Morgan and said, “Two days ago I thought to myself I’m going to go and give my mum some flowers, so I drove down to the grave and it was closed.”
With the world battling the coronavirus pandemic, mass gatherings have been banned – and many parks and cemeteries across the country have been closed as a result.
Which caused “major anxiety” and a “big old panic attack” for Alexandra as she was unable to grieve.
She added, “Major anxiety, big old panic attack in the car because I thought, ‘how can you stop me from seeing my own mum?’ and many people go through that, I didn’t know that wasn’t essential.”
Alexandra lost her mother, Soul II Soul star, Melissa Bell, back in 2017 after a nine-year battle with kidney failure. And being unable to visit her grave was a huge struggle for the singer.
“I can understand that they're cancelling people's weddings etc but I didn't realise that's non-essential, and my auntie explained to me, ‘girl these people can't be around others too, you can't expect them to be open.”
Despite her auntie’s best efforts, Alexandra couldn’t come to terms with the restrictions.
“I had to have my auntie explain it to me and I thought, ‘Okay I get it’ and I felt awful, but I was so taken aback that we couldn't do things we wanted to do anymore, and that's doing lovely things like laying flowers for someone, and seeing your friends.”
It’s a simple thing Alexandra won’t take for granted again. “You take those things for granted and you can't do that now, and that caused me major anxiety.”
Alexandra also opened up about her boyfriend's battle with cancer - after he was given the all clear from cancer just days before Christmas.
On his shock bowel cancer diagnosis last summer, Alexandra said, "One minute we were dating, and then everything is going well and we are on cloud nine and then all of a sudden we're hit like that, got hit by the c word, I still can't even bring myself to say it, and then I look back at it and go wow he is probably one of the strongest men I know, he's so strong."
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