Charlene White cries over lockdown rules at aunt’s funeral

Loose Women star Charlene White was in tears as she recalled having to stick to the lockdown restrictions at her aunt’s funeral.

Following news of the alleged rule-breaking drinks party in the garden of Downing Street, the broadcaster, 41, has said she “stuck by the rules” while her aunt was being buried.

On Wednesday, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson apologised for attending a “bring your own booze” gathering at Number 10 during the first national lockdown.

Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, is said to have sent an email to more than 100 Downing Street employees inviting them to the evening event on May 20 2020.

In Westminster, Mr Johnson acknowledged the public’s “rage” but continued to insist he believes the event could have technically been within the rules at the time.

On ITV’s Loose Women, White said: “My family stuck by the rules, we had to bury family members without even being able too hug each other.

“I had to sit in a crematorium while my aunt was buried and because I wasn’t living in the same household as my brother and sister and my dad, (I was) in a pew by myself with my baby daughter on my lap as we were all in floods of tears and we can’t hug each other.

“I stood by the graveside as grave diggers were filling that grave and watching my cousin in floods of tears and not being able to hug her because we were following the rules because we didn’t know what else to do.”

TV presenter Linda Robson handed White a tissue as fellow panellists Carol McGiffin and Nadia Sawalha comforted her.

White added: “We were told we had to follow the rules so we were following the rules with the understanding that those in charge were also doing the same thing.

“I mention delayed grief because it comes in waves for me because there was so many of us who haven’t grieved at all and then you have a situation like this and it is like, well should I have just hugged my cousin?

“If we weren’t all supposed to follow the rules should I have just hugged her?”

Senior official Sue Gray is investigating claims of lockdown-busting parties in Whitehall and Downing Street.