Hannah Ferrier was five when her big brother died. She’s finally ready to talk about it
Below Deck Mediterranean star Hannah Ferrier has opened up publicly for the very first time about tragically losing her older brother when she was just a child.
Speaking candidly with Phoebe Burgess on their new (Over)share podcast, Ferrier revealed that she was just five years old when her brother Glenn died.
Hannah Ferrier opened up about losing Glenn on the (Over)share podcast. Instagram/@oversharethepodcast
He was 10 at the time and died from an illness, though Ferrier chose not to share details about his cause of death.
“From when he was diagnosed to when he passed was like six weeks. It was very, very quick,” she told Burgess.
“We spent all of our time at the children’s hospital, and I remember the after effects and the ripple effects.”
Losing Glenn took a massive toll on Ferrier, her parents, and her eldest brother, who was about 14.
Being the early ’90s, he and Ferrier didn’t receive therapy or the kind of support children who lose a sibling have access to today.
Her family being from Zimbabwe also meant that there was a cultural expectation to push difficult emotions down.
Ferrier confessed that she didn’t fully process how the grief affected her, and at such a young age, until she welcomed her own daughter, Ava.
“This sounds like so sad, but I didn’t realise how young I was,” she said.
“Because of how we dealt with it as a family, I always saw myself as probably more like a 10-year-old girl, so watching my daughter at five and knowing the kind of trauma I went through at her age [is hard].”
Becoming a mother changed the way Ferrier understood her family’s grief. Instagram/@hannahferrier234
Becoming a mother also changed the way Ferrier saw her parents.
Before she and husband Josh Roberts had Ava, Ferrier couldn’t fully comprehend how the experience of losing a child would feel.
Now she can understand how it shaped her parents’ approach to raising her and her older brother after Glenn’s death.
“You don’t know how you’ll react to watching your child die,” she said.
“It’s very easy to go like, ‘Why did they let you leave school early’ or, ‘Why did this happen?’
“You watch your child die after raising him for 10 years, and then you tell me how you’re going to react.”
Hannah Ferrier met her husband in 2018, had daughter Ava in 2020, and married in 2022. Instagram/@hannahferrier234
Ferrier confirmed that her parents ultimately ended up divorcing after Glenn’s death, which is a very common outcome for parents who lose a child.
Watching their marriage end went on to shape the way she approached relationships in her own life.
“My parents split five years after [Glenn’s death], so it was always a really big thing for me,” Ferrier said.
“I was very methodical with choosing my partner because I don’t look at love, marriage and things like that like other people do.”
She found love with husband Roberts in 2018, and they welcomed Ava in 2020, before tying the knot in 2022.
The Red Nose Grief and Loss Support Line is available 24/7 for anyone affected by the loss of a pregnancy, stillbirth or death of a baby or child on 1300 308 307.
