Adelle Onyango opens up on grief after losing her mother 14 years ago
Media personality Adelle Onyango has opened up about the pain of losing her mother and how the experience changed her life.
She shared that grief reshaped her in ways she did not expect. She described it as both painful and transformative.
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“Grief is complex and contradictory,” she said on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
“It ripped parts of me up and stitched parts of me back together.”
She explained that losing her mother left a deep absence in her life.
She said the pain came from losing someone so valuable. At the same time, she noted that the loss helped shape her into a stronger person.
“It’s born from the absence of such valuable people, but it also contributed to building the best version of me,” she said.
How grief changed her life
Onyango said the loss made her question life. She also said it strengthened her spirituality.
“It made me question this life thing, but also built my spirituality, not religion, left that years back,” she explained.
After her mother’s death, she admitted she tried to avoid facing the pain.
“After mummy died, I ran away from feeling the grief,” she said.
She added that she focused on thinking through it instead of feeling it.
“I intellectualised it, I got into relationships back to back, any distraction was welcome,” she shared.
She explained that she kept herself busy to avoid dealing with the loss.
With time, she said she allowed herself to fully feel the grief. That moment, she explained, helped her understand life better.
“But finally feeling my grief helped me understand that this life thing is to be lived,” she said.
She now believes in living with intention.
“Live loudly. Live slowly. Live deeply,” she said. She encouraged people to embrace life fully despite its pain.
Onyango also spoke about love and empathy.
“Love hard and recklessly. Let empathy lead you and curiosity teach you. That’s all,” she said.
She added that when everything else is removed, what remains is how one chooses to live.
“At the end of the day, when you remove all rules, all expectations: I hope you live loudly and slowly, my loves,” she said.
Adelle lost her mom on March 31, 2012; she was battling breast cancer.
