ABC A DWTS pro opened up about grief.
On January 10, “Dancing With the Stars” pro Peta Murgatroyd gave fans a bit of an update on what’s been going on in her life.
Murgatroyd shared that she and her husband Maks Chmerkovskiy threw their son Shai a birthday party over the weekend, marking the first time that they could really do something special for him in two years due to Covid restrictions and precautions. The special day was not without sadness, however, as Murgatroyd’s father’s funeral took place the same evening.
“I had my father’s funeral Sunday night after Shai’s birthday party. That was beautiful and awful at the same time. I won’t go into detail because I’ll start crying,” she said. Murgatroyd explained that she couldn’t travel to Australia for the funeral for a reason that she couldn’t yet disclose, but did go on to talk about grief and how losing her father has affected her.
“It was a real happy, and really sad, also, weekend,” Murgatroyd said.
Here’s what you need to know:
Murgatroyd Said That Her Grief Comes in Waves
Murgatroyd spoke candidly on her Instagram Stories, letting her fans know how she was doing after the death of her father. Weeks earlier, Murgatroyd shared that he had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in May 2022.
“There’s no cure for it. It’s like, your lungs become scarred and the scarring just, kind of, continues. Elevates. Gets larger. And, eventually, the whole lungs will be scarred,” she explained at the time.
She returned back in California after spending several days with her father, and took to her Instagram feed to confirm that he had died on December 29, 2022. Murgatroyd has been processing the loss ever since.
“Life goes on though, right? Pick up. You wake up. You live the best life you possibly can while you’re here on earth in this body. So, I’m trying to move forward with that,” she said on her Instagram Stories on January 10, 2023.
“I’m trying to be actively happy. Not that I’m not happy, but grief is a crazy thing. It just comes in waves. Some days I will wake up terrible. Some days I will be completely fine. And then, at the end of the day, I might break down because I might see a photo of my dad or I will think of something that we used to do together, or drive past the ocean — which I do every day anyway — but it comes in stages,” she continued.
Murgatroyd Credited Her Son With Getting Her Through the Tough Times
Murgatroyd stopped her video as she started getting emotional but was able to continue.
“I said I wasn’t going to go into detail about the funeral so, of course, I go into detail about my dad,” she said before continuing her previous thought. “Grief. I’m just gonna let it come when it comes, let it go when it goes,” she explained.
Murgatroyd then credited her 6-year-old son for really keeping her going, admitting that she “wouldn’t be very well right now” if she didn’t have him. “Having a child really just grounds you,” she concluded.
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