The best day of Tom Mann’s life ended up turning into a day of “irreversible heartbreak.”
Mann, best known for his appearance on the UK’s “X Factor” in 2014, shared tragic news on Instagram Monday, saying his beloved fiancée, Danielle “Dani” Hampson, died on their wedding day Saturday. She was 34.
Posting a black-and-white photo of Hampson and their 8-month-old son, Bowie, Mann, 28, said he could not believe he was “writing these words.”
“My darling Dani – my best friend, my everything and more, the love of my life – passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning, 18th June,” he wrote. “On what was supposed to be the happiest day of our lives ended in irreversible heartbreak. I feel like I have cried an ocean.
“We never made it to the altar; or got to say our vows, or dance our first dance, but I know you know that you were my entire world and the best thing that has ever happened to me, Danielle.”
Mann, who appeared on the singing show as part of the boy band Stereo Kicks, said their son would provide him with the “strength” to cope.
To think of what today should have been is strange, but we count ourselves incredibly fortunate that a wedding date is all we’ve lost,” she wrote in a Sept. 25, 2020 post. “Everyone has a story from 2020 — I’m just grateful you’re so heavily featured in mine.”
Mann said he was “completely broken” over Hampson’s death, who he remembered as “the most incredible soul.” A cause of death has not been revealed.
“We have lost such a special person and I am sure we are about to see an abundant outpouring of love that reflects that. I will try to find peace in your messages and comments, but right now I am grieving and I will be for a very, very long time,” he wrote. My darling Dani, the brightest light in any room, my world is nothing but darkness without you. I will miss you forever.”
Mann auditioned as a solo artist on the U.K. version of “The X Factor” in 2014 but was put into the group Stereo Kicks.