Influencer Rosie Connolly has revealed how the tragic death of her father left her battling anxiety and with the fear of losing other loved ones.
Dublin native Rosie was just 18 when her dad Peter was found at dead at sea.
Now 29, and a mother-of-two to son Harry and new baby Remi, Rosie admits the loss is still hard to deal with.
Rosie was just a baby when dad Peter suffered a brain haemorrhage at just 29 after he was the victim of a break-in.
The fashionista revealed: "He had a brain haemorrhage and then he had a stroke after his brain surgery. It's scary because I don't know my dad before that.
"He was an incredible dad to me. My mum had to go back to work and my dad was left to mind me. He could barely use his left side, he had very little power, but he just got on with it.
"My mum said he would be changing my nappy with just one hand. He was never the same person. My mum lost her husband the day that he had his brain haemorrhage."
Rosie's parents later separated and her mother remarried but she remained close to her beloved dad.
And she says the heartbreaking loss left her in fear of losing other family members.
Speaking on The Good Glow podcast with Georgie Crawford, she added: "That grief never leaves you. You learn to live without that person.
"It totally changes you. That's when my anxiety started. My fear is of losing people close to me that I love - I constantly have that fear."
"I'm like, 'Things are too good to be true, they can just be taken from you'.
"That's terrifying. It's never left me. The more people have come into my life, the more people that I love - like my children - the bigger that fear becomes."
However, she added that the tragedy has brought her family closer together.
Rosie said: "From the minute I hit 18, life got quite hard. But it changed me for the better.
"It forced our family to become so close. We can read each other. We're such an open book."
