Loose Women presenter Charlene White has revealed that the death of Brenda Edward's son, Jamal, was leaked to the press before she was able to give her own statement.
Hosting the ITV lunchtime show on Monday, Charlene and her fellow panellists gave a touching tribute to music entrepreneur and YouTube star Jamal, 31, who died after a sudden illness.
WATCH: Loose Women panellists pay tribute to Jamal Edwards following his death
At the beginning of the show, the ITV news presenter criticised the way in which Jamal's death was announced. She said: "The opportunity to share Brenda’s loss and the family’s loss was taken away from Brenda because of various people on social media who decided to tell Brenda’s story and Jamal’s story without consulting Brenda, which was not fair in any shape or form."
She continued: "We understand a lot of Jamal’s incredible work was done through social media – he is a powerhouse, he changed the UK music scene in a way that we’ve not seen for generations – but what people have to understand is there is work life and there is family life and there is home life, and it should have been Brenda who was able to choose when the world knew about her loss and that was taken away from her."
MORE: Loose Women's Brenda Edwards breaks silence on devastating death of son
READ: Alex Scott 'in complete shock' after tragic death of Jamal Edwards
Comedian and friend of Brenda, Judy Love, joined the panel especially on Monday in order to "honour" Jamal. Holding back tears, she said: "If I'm honest, I don't want to be here doing this, I don't want to have to do this but we have to.
© Photo: RexBrenda with her son Jamal
"It's heartbreaking and all we can do is try and do our best to support Brenda and honour her amazing son in such a difficult time and we just wanted to be there for her yesterday."
Judy and Charlene visited Brenda on Sunday night following the devastating news. Charlene explained: "We went to go and see her because what do you do with somebody when they lose their child? You don't really know what the right thing to do is, do you?
"So we just wanted to physically be with her and Tanisha and to give them all the love and hugs that we can possibly give them, not that it's going to help but we need them to know they are loved."
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