The Wanted’s Jay McGuiness remembers Tom Parker as ‘massive life force’
By Hannah Roberts and Kerri-Ann Roper, PA Reporters
Singer and actor Jay McGuiness has remembered his The Wanted bandmate Tom Parker as a “massive life force” who was “hilarious”.
Parker died in 2022 at the age of 33, 17 months after announcing his diagnosis with an inoperable brain tumour.
McGuiness, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, is among seven well-known personalities featured in BBC Two’s Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps, which sees celebrities of differing faiths and beliefs walk together through the Austrian and Swiss Alps.
The 34-year-old reflects on Parker’s death in the reality programme and told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that grieving publicly can come with feelings of “shame”.
“Especially with grief, there’s often quite a lot of shame grieving publicly, and it’s easy to feel like ‘I don’t want to cry’ and all that sort of thing, and ‘I hate the idea of crying'”, he said.
“I also am considering Tom’s family and friends, wife and kids, every time I’m talking about him, whether I’m asked about him or not, that’s a reminder about something that could be painful, that could be on the wrong day for them to hear about.
“I want people to remember that, man, he was a massive life force. He was hilarious.”
He added: “I want people to remember the good as well as just remember how things ended.”
Speaking about Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps, McGuiness said he was “never convinced that anyone knows” where people go after they die and added: “I think maybe we don’t find out until you’re gone.”
Parker disclosed in October 2020 that he had been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma and had begun radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
He married his wife Kelsey in 2018, and the couple had two children, Aurelia and Bodhi.
The Wanted formed in 2009, comprised of Parker and McGuiness, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes, and had two UK number one singles and four UK top 10 albums, with best-known songs including All Time Low and Glad You Came.
McGuiness is currently playing William Shakespeare in the UK and Ireland tour of musical & Juliet.