Lisa Riley has revealed she sought therapy after struggling to cope with her grief in the wake of best pal Robin Windsor’s death.  

The former Strictly Come Dancing star was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in a H๏τel room in London on 19 February 2024 aged 44.

The performer was a professional dancer on the BBC show from 2010 to 2013 – partnering with Lisa during the 2012 series – and his death prompted an outpouring of grief across the dancing world. 

And over a year after his pᴀssing, the Emmerdale actress, 48, opened up on the toll the loss has taken on mental health and emotional wellbeing, admitting her ‘heart’s hurting’. 

Speaking to OK! magazine, she shared: ‘I’d never had therapy since losing my mum in 2012. However, with Robin, I had to start having therapy. It really does work. I lost mum, then Robin, and two and half months after Robin we lost my aunt suddenly when she was on holiday. She died having dinner. It was awful.’

Meanwhile, the Mandy Dingle star told how without her work colleagues, there were times she didn’t feel like she could carry on with her job amid her grief.

Lisa Riley has revealed she sought therapy after struggling to cope with her grief in the wake of best pal Robin Windsor’s death

Over a year after his pᴀssing, the Emmerdale actress, 48, opened up on the toll the loss has taken on mental health and emotional wellbeing, admitting her ‘heart’s hurting’.

However, ever the professional, she mustered up the strength to push through with her work, noting how getting into character as bubbly Mandy was her ‘coping mechanism’. 

She said: ‘I lost my best friend. I’m so lucky with our dressing room crew at work. Without those girls, some days, I wouldn’t be able to carry on. I put the wig on, the make-up and the costume and be funny, but my heart’s hurting. My husband-to-be Al has been amazing, but yes, I lost my gay best friend. He and I were Velcro together.’

She added: ‘I put Mandy Dingle’s lashes on and kept going – that’s exactly what I did with my mum. That was my coping mechanism.’

After his death was announced, heartbroken Lisa paid tribute to her pal on Instagram, writing: ‘My bestie, my robin, my angel… now our forever angel, who is loved, will always be loved, forever in my heart… my very broken heart.’

In the months after Robin’s pᴀssing, Lisa revealed her heartbreak after the death of her close friend.

Talking to The Mirror in June last year, Lisa compared the sadness at losing Robin to how she felt after losing her mother to breast cancer in July 2012 and added: ‘So to then lose my best friend as well… It was like, ‘Why does God take the best?’. 

The actress who has appeared in Emmerdale for nearly 30 years went on to reveal that being at work had been hard. 

She said: ‘He was such a big part of my life. There have been days when I didn’t want to go in front of the camera. I had to paint Mandy Dingle on… put the wig and lashes on and go out there. But it’s so painful.’ 

The former Strictly Come Dancing star was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in a H๏τel room in London on 19 February 2024 aged 44 

‘I’d never had therapy since losing my mum in 2012. However, with Robin, I had to start having therapy. It really does work’

Meanwhile, the Mandy Dingle star told how without her work colleagues, there were times she didn’t feel like she could carry on with her job amid her grief

‘Without those girls, some days, I wouldn’t be able to carry on. I put the wig on, the make-up and the costume and be funny, but my heart’s hurting’

Robin a professional dancer on the BBC show from 2010 to 2013 – partnering with Lisa during the 2012 series – and his death prompted an outpouring of grief across the dancing world

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The TV star – who accepted the Posthumous Award on his behalf at The British LGBT Awards that same month – added that her co-stars including Emma Atkins, who plays Charity Dingle, and Lucy Pargeter who plays Chas Dingle have been a ‘godsend’ and ‘a great therapy.’ 

Robin was found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in a London H๏τel, it has emerged, as his friends detailed his battle against mental health struggles and thoughts of suicide.

On January 27 2024, Robin had posed in front of a marina with Cape Town’s Table Mountain in the background with the caption: ‘This place is the distraction of all distractions!’

He looked happy as he took pictures of elephants on safari and relaxed in a lodge overlooking the stunning Leopard Mountain game reserve.

The dancer had also enjoyed a one-night stop in Mozambique and was seen relaxing on the beach and posing with a Lemur in Madagascar in the days beforehand.

But Robin’s last post on Instagram, shared to his 46,000 followers on January 28, was a more muted selfie in the near-dark with the caption: ‘Hiding in the shadows.’

Seven days earlier, the dancer had reposted a quote saying: ‘Trauma teaches you to expect and accept the bare minimum.

‘In this new season, may you adjust your standards and learn to receive the maximum. You are worthy. You are enough. You deserve overflow.’