X Factor and I’m A Celebrity star George Shelley has revealed a horror surgery left him with a major artery in his throat ‘cut in two’.
The Union J singer, 31, went through a difficult period earlier this year when he was stuck in hospital for a week while his bandmate Jaymi Hensley was grieving over the death of his fiancé Oliver Marmon.
33-year-old Marmon tragically died in August after falling to his death from a hotel window.
Jaymi, 34, who reached the semi-finals of Simon Cowell’s singing competition with George, JJ Hamblett and Josh Cuthbert in 2012, had been in a relationship with hairstylist Marmon for over 14 years, and were due to get married in September.
Recalling the difficult period for his close friend, George has now revealed he was hospitalised at the time.
He explained: ‘It’s been a really tough year to be honest. I had my tonsils out and my artery was cut in two and I was in hospital for a week.
‘I lost a lot of blood and during that I was bereaved, my bandmate’s fiancé Olly, and dealing with grief again.’
Speaking of Jaymi, George continued to The Sun: ‘I’m so proud of him. He’s kept working. He’s creating happiness for himself by performing and that’s what Olly loved with Jaymi.
‘He was a really great rock for me during my grief and I want to be that for him.’
George’s sister Harriet died in April 2017 at the age of 21 after suffering devastating head injuries in a road accident.
Following her death, he released a documentary on how dealing with his own grief and his mental health, in a bid to help others going through similar ordeals.
He also told Metro about the dark place he found himself in, and punching walls in fits of rage, after she died.
‘It’s so easy to how have everything become foggy and not knowing how to get out or deal,’ he told us.
‘I wasn’t processing it or talking to people about it, and that’s where the frustrations come out, it’s such a confusing period if you don’t have that control over your mind and the understanding of why you’re feeling that way, why it’s making you act the way you act, you fall into a different place.
‘Those periods of my life I don’t want to remember, but I’m talking about them and I hope that people can – if they’re in similar positions – they can work their own way around it.’
George revealed it ‘could’ve gone a very different way’ for him if he didn’t have the documentary to focus on, or the support system around him.
‘I had to start from scratch, I had no idea – I’ve never lost anyone in my life, and unfortunately the first time I experienced it was my sister and my best friend,’ he went on.
‘I had to learn quickly because otherwise it could have gone differently for me and could’ve gone down a different path. I don’t want to be that person, I want to be strong and support my family and others in this position.
‘I know the place you can fall into and it’s not nice. It’s a scary place, and if you get into it, it’s hard to get out of.’
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