When Mat Owen lost his wife Nic to breast cancer in 2023, his world was turned upside down. Left to raise their two young children, he faced the unimaginable: grieving the love of his life while trying to stay present as a father.
In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Rosie and Mat explore what it means to parent through loss, love someone through illness, and rebuild life when the person who anchored you is gone. Mat speaks with raw honesty about emotional shutdown, male grief, and the isolation that often comes with being a widowed dad. He shares the highs and heartbreak of his life with Nic, from meeting in their teens to defying medical odds to become parents, and the quiet strength she showed throughout her cancer journey.
Together, they reflect on the small, everyday moments that carry enormous weight: bedtime routines, school WhatsApp threads, a child’s comment about a photo, and the instant you realise your daughter looks just like her mum. The episode also delves into coping after loss, from alcohol use to dating apps, and the difficult but hopeful path toward self-compassion and sobriety.
This is a conversation about love that refuses to fade, the legacy of a mother’s strength, and the courage it takes to keep showing up. Mat’s story is a reminder that even in the depths of grief, we can find purpose, connection, and hope.
Episode highlights:
• Mat reflects on meeting Nic in his early twenties and how her strength and clarity brought purpose and love into his life.
• They navigate the shock of a cancer diagnosis in 2011, a relationship tested through treatment, and their fierce determination to become parents against medical predictions.
• Mat discusses the return of Nic’s cancer after the birth of their second child, the emotional strain it brought, and Nic’s unwavering resilience through her final years.
• Together, they confront male emotional reticence in grief and the unexpected difficulty of building support networks as a widowed father.
• Mat shares how he and Nic co-created child-friendly bereavement tools, “cancer flashcards,” and how he now carries that legacy forward. https://www.littlecclub.com/shop
• The conversation explores coping mechanisms after loss, from alcohol use to dating apps, and the difficult but hopeful path toward sobriety and reconnection.
• Parenting after loss is shown in touching detail, from school run routines to gently helping children navigate insensitive playground remarks.
• They close on how grief reshapes identity, the quiet pride Mat finds in being “the school mum,” and the presence of Nic in the children she left behind.