Jill Halfpenny: Strictly Come Dancing winner reveals she has found love again after tragic loss

The actor, who made her TV debut as a child in Byker Grove, is also known for her performances in Coronation Street, EastEnders, Waterloo Road, and Cuckoo and also won Strictly Come Dancing.

She has opened up about her experience of losing her partner suddenly in 2017 and how his death mirrored that of her father Colin, who died from a heart attack when she was just four-years-old.

Halfpenny explores her journey with grief in her memoir, A Life Reimagined, explaining to This Morning hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard that she confronted her grief later on in life.

What has Jill Halfpenny said about losing her partner and father?

The actor has opened up about losing both her partner, Matt and father Colin from a heart attack on This Morning. Speaking to hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on Thursday (June 20), she explained: "I just thought, 'Ok, this is awful but this is my choice now. I'm cracked open and raw, let's go and do all the work I hadn't done with my dad and grieve them both together and see what I can learn from it and see if it can set me free'". 

Touching on her father’s death, she explained that she confronted her grief later on in life, explaining: "It was 1979, we weren't sitting down with therapists. We went into survival mode and we became a big family of doers.”

She continued: "We were busy and productive and got on with things. Externally we all looked really good but internally we were struggling because sometimes you just really need to talk about how you feel. When you're little and you don't have the words, you need the guidance."

The Coronation Street star added: "What was really difficult was grieving somebody who I didn't really know a lot about. You have to allow yourself to sit in those uncomfortable feelings and be ok with not being ok for a while."

When did Matt Janes die?

Halfpenny’s partner, Matt Janes died suddenly from a heart attack in 2017, aged just 43-years-old. Speaking on The One Show on Wednesday (June 19), she explained how she was able to find love again after tragedy. She said: "When you lose a partner, a romantic relationship, it can sometimes feel like betrayal if you move on."

She continued: "It's not, you absolutely are allowed to be happy again, but I think if you do the processing and the healing and do the work, you can go into another relationship and be happy again. But if you haven't done that work, there will always be a part of you somewhere else."

Adding: "I fortunately feel that I do deserve to be happy and I do feel happy, and it's really nice to be in love again."

Tragically, her father Colin died in a similar way in 1979 when the actor was just four years old. Speaking about losing them both, Halfpenny shared that she had a “sense of feeling cursed”. Speaking to Prima Magazine in July she said: “Like, how can that happen twice? That drove me to therapy to investigate those feelings because I thought, ‘I’m not going to live alongside that narrative’.”

When can you read her memoir, A Life Reimagined?

Halfpenny’s memoir, A Life Reimagined, explores her experiences with “love, loss and life after tragedy”. It was released on Thursday, June 20.

Sarah McCann is a Trends Writer for NationalWorld. If you liked this article you can follow Sarah on X (Twitter) here. You can also sign up to her free weekly column in the NationalWorld newsletter bringing you the latest tv and film news every Thursday.