Hollyoaks star Ali Bastian's heartache as friend died a week after baby's birth

ok.co.uk:

Ali Bastian has candidly opened up on struggles she has faced since becoming a mum-of-two earlier this year, announcing that she lost one of her " closest friends" one week after giving birth to her second daughter.The 42-year-old welcomed her and husband David O'Mahony's second child, a daughter named Isabella, in March and opened up on the birth in an exclusive OK!

interview. But the former Hollyoaks star has now tragically revealed that her best friend died just days after she welcomed Isabella into the world.

Sharing photos of herself with the friend, who has only been referred to as Lou, Ali wrote to her 56,400 Instagram followers: "My little one will be 12 weeks this Saturday.The End of the fourth trimester - the end of a period that has been one of the toughest of my life." She continued to explain: "A week after she was born, I lost one of my oldest and closest friends.Trying to process this enormous loss whilst walking the hormonal tightrope of my postpartum period has been and remains to be incredibly intense. "I’ve taken to having long showers so I can cry and let it all out so that I can then return to parenting a little lighter.

Knowing that such life changing events happening in such close succession could leave my mental health sailing incredibly close to the wind has meant I’ve had to seek help wherever I could find it." The actress, who played Becca Dean on the hit Channel 4 soap from 2001 until 2007, then shared with fans that she has been seeing a counsellor for "many years" and has also hired a doula to support her.