Kate Ritchie breaks down live on-air as young mum opens up about life after death of husband

Radio host Kate Ritchie struggled to contain her tears after a guest shared her struggles following the death of her husband from cancer.

Kate Ritchie broke down on-air when a young mum shared her struggles following the recent death of her husband from cancer.

The radio host sobbed on her Nova program Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchiewhen she and her co-hosts called a mum-of-two named Shannon who had been doing it tough since losing her husband Jack to a rare form of brain and spinal cancer six weeks ago.

Shannon shared how his health quickly deteriorated and they had to sell their family home that Jack helped build, while she also needed to quit her job to become his full-time carer.

But the really difficult part was telling their two young children – Freddie, 5, and Goldie, 3 – that their beloved dad was dying and one day he would not be coming home.

Kate Ritchie couldn’t control her tears during the heartbreaking story. Picture: Nova

Shannon lost her husband six weeks ago to a rare form of brain and spinal cancer. Picture: Nova

Ritchie had contained her tears up to this point, but she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Can I ask … Oh I’m so sorry ... how are you doing, love?’ she sobbed, as co-hosts Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald and Michael “Wippa” Wipfli also appeared emotional.

A distraught Shannon then replied: “Some days to even just wake up … how am I going to get through today? How am I going to survive this? But also be a parent, and be a good one at that? And not fail them … it’s really hard.”

Shannon was a guest on the show’s We’ve Got Your Back segment in which Nova helps to ease the day-to-day hardships of callers.

After hearing Shannon’s heartbreaking story, Fitzy announced the show would be helping her by donating $10,000 to her family.

Christmas was also sorted courtesy of the show, who sent gifts of bikes, toys and video game consoles for Shannon’s children.

Shannon and Jack shared two kids together.

The couple had to sell their family home as Jack fought the illness.

This was the second time in as many months Ritchie has broken down on-air. Last month, when they had parenting expert Maggie Dent as a guest on the program, the former Home and Away star was also reduced to tears.

Dent had called on dads to better understand the range of emotions mums go through daily. She particularly pointed to bedtime, when dads typically fall asleep while mums will over-analyse the day.

“The singular focus of most males means ‘I’m going to go to bed to go to sleep’. But mums are biologically wired to make sure we’re caring really well, because of oestrogen,” Dent said.

“It’s a female thing. We second guess ourselves and then beat ourselves up. Then suddenly we’ll be wondering if [the kids will] get into university and then we’ve gone back and regret something we did at our 21st birthday,” she continued.

Ritchie – a single mum to 9-year-old daughter Mae – really resonated with this painful home truth about motherhood, sobbing after Dent’s explanation.

“This is the mum brain, this is the mental load we carry for the people we love,” Dent said as Ritchie wiped tears from her face. “Sorry for doing that to you, Kate.”

“So what I want sometimes is for our dads to recognise that we’re just wired different and we want dads to be able to jump in and go ‘I’ve got this, love,’”