Bonnie Ryan has opened up about the death of her dad Gerry, revealing the impact it has had on her life.
The legendary broadcaster passed away suddenly at the age of 53, leaving behind five children; Lottie, Bonnie, Babette, Elliot and Rex.
While doing a Q&A with fans on Instagram, Bonnie was asked how she coped and continues to deal with the tragedy, a decade after his death.
“I was 17 and I don’t think it’s something you just get over,” she said.
“You never really get over it, but you get over the shock and you learn to live with your new normal and you can live and an extremely happy life going forward.
“Of course you’re always going to miss then and they’ll always be part of your life but you will be able to live a life where it’s not the first thing you think of when you wake up every morning.”
Following the tenth anniversary of his passing, Bonnie’s sister Lottie spoke about the moment they learned of his death.
Speaking to Brian Dowling on his podcast Death Becomes Him, she said, “My whole life changed in an instant.
“I obviously wasn’t expecting the news when I got it, so I just felt like my whole world suddenly shattered. It was just horrific.
“Thankfully I was with some of my family when I got the news, but the whole day is a big blur in my head, you know, in terms of what happened and the emotion around it. It was just awful. The worst moment you can think of.”
Lottie revealed that being in the public eye made their grief and that traumatic time even harder to deal with.
“I felt people were expecting me to always look upset or be in grief,” she said.
“I could be having a day where I woke up and maybe it wasn’t the first thing on my mind.
“I’d walk into a shop and there would be awful things written on a newspaper about him, and it would throw me back again. I found that very difficult for a long time.”