EXCLUSIVE: Gladiator Steel praises 'amazing' Myleene Klass for helping him grieve baby loss
The TV star says he and wife were touched by the emotional response from Myleene
Gladiator Steel has praised Loose Women’s “amazing” Myleene Klass for helping him and his wife Samantha grieve the loss of their baby son Leo.
The TV star, whose real name is Zack George, had agonised over whether they should open up about their grief, after Leo died 13 days after he was born prematurely.
But after the couple spoke to the Mirror about their bereavement, they were overwhelmed by support from the public - and were touched by the emotional responses of the “special” ITV daytime panel.
Zack, 35, has heaped praise on Myleene who held Samantha’s hand and wept with them, while reassuring the couple they had “turned pain into power” by opening their hearts up to the public.
He said: “It was so amazing - obviously Myleene has been through four miscarriages so we were really, really hoping we had her on the panel, and it was literally the perfect panel.
“They helped us through, and navigated us through the conversation - obviously it’s a hard topic. They were so supportive, so amazing. It was really special.”
Myleene was reduced to tears while she told Zack and Samatha they were “brave” and, along with the rest of the panel which included Ruth Langsford, Coleen Nolan and Katie Piper, encouraged donations to the pair’s charity endeavours in their son’s memory.
Zack and Samatha, who have a two-year-old daughter Ivy, had agonised over whether they should speak about their experiences.
Their son Leo was born 23 weeks into Samantha’s pregnancy in March, and during his short 13 days, required blood transfusions and developed air pockets on his lungs.
Zack says: “It's obviously a super hard thing to talk about. But we didn't want him to just kind of be here, then be gone, and just that's it.”
They have been overwhelmed with support from a community of people who have experienced similar bereavements.
“The amount of people that got in contact with us was incredible,” he continues.
“So many families have said they've had the same thing. They bottled it up, didn't talk about it, and now it's all coming out years later - they never really dealt with that grief. We're a really strong family anyway - we've got Ivy who's two years old, so she has kept us smiling a lot. But we opened a community that we didn't know existed, and now we've got so many people who speak to us and so many people supporting the charity.”
Zack - who has partnered with Disney on Ice ahead of the upcoming tour - set up the charity Leo and Friends to support other families, and says some of the new friends they have made as a result of opening up have been invaluable.
He explains: “Sam is very different to me. She delved into a lot of grief groups and Facebook groups - she didn't want to speak to her normal friends because they didn't understand what you've been through.
“It's hard - obviously, people are there for you. But you don't really understand unless you've been through it, so having families like that for people to talk to really helps. That was her way of dealing with it.
“A lot of people don't know if they can talk to you, so they don't come talk to you - not because they're being mean, it's just because they don't know what to say, or if you're ready to talk. So a lot of people end up just ignoring you.
“Sam really delved into those groups and I delved into doing a mile of burpees a day - how different people deal with it!”
Zack spent 13 days completing a mile of burpees in memory of his son, and raised £33,000 for his Leo and Friends charity.
Meanwhile, 6ft hunk Zack is making a heroic effort to get schools to encourage healthy eating - and would like to take his tireless campaigning to Parliament.
The Gladiator was overweight as a child, as he binged on Haribo and McDonald’s, and now devotes his time going into schools to encourage children to make better choices.
He explains: “I didn't like exercise, didn't eat healthy, didn't have any confidence and watching the original Gladiator show is what made me want to get into healthy fitness.
“That's why Gladiators is so special because we've got the audience - there's not many shows where the parents can sit down and thoroughly enjoy it just as much as the children. When we walk into a school and the kids go absolutely wild - and the teachers do to be fair, they go just as crazy.”
He believes the pandemic has been particularly damaging to children’s eating habits.
“Kids were locked in a house for two years through key development stages,” he says. “And that's having a big knock-on effect now in schools as well. So you see it in certain years, they see the lack of confidence.”
He believes the ban of junk food adverts on TV - which has been delayed until next year - will be a good start when it eventually comes into play.
“Obviously if they see the junk food less, then they're going to want it less,” he says. “So it definitely helps. It comes hand in hand.”
* Montell Douglas and Zack George partner with Disney On Ice, exploring what it means to be a true hero, in celebration of upcoming tour Disney On Ice presents Find Your Hero.
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