EXCLUSIVE: Georgia Love aches for her late mum after months in a “really bad place mentally”

It’s been a difficult year for Georgia Love and it’s only going to get harder as Mother’s Day approaches.

The 33-year-old lost mum Belinda in 2016 after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer and has felt her absence more keenly than ever in recent months.

“This will be our six Mother’s Day without her, and to be honest it hasn’t got any easier over all of those years,” Georgia tells Now To Love exclusively.

“I’ve been in a really bad place mentally the last six months or so, and I’ve never wanted my mum more than now.”

Having dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, personal hardships and media scandals, Georgia often taps into memories of her “cheerleader” mum to get through.

“I always hear her in my mind saying, ‘stick to your guns, baby. You know what you’re doing and don’t let the bastards get you down’,” she laughs.

But if she’s being honest, there’s nothing more confronting than staring down the barrel of the rest of her life without her mum around.

In the hardest moments – and the happiest, like her 2021 wedding to Lee Elliott – all she wants is “a cuddle from mum” and it’s hard to accept it will never happen again.

WATCH: Georgia Love and Lee Elliott nail the Dirty Dancing lift at their wedding reception. Story continues after video.

“I wonder if that part of it will ever feel any easier,” Georgia muses.

Her family and husband Lee work hard to keep Belinda’s memory alive, even though the timing of her death meant Lee only got to meet her a few times in her final months.

“Lee will say things every so often, like ‘God, you sound like your mum’ which is so wonderful … we’ve kept her memory alive so much that even Lee really feels like he did know her.”

And Belinda’s outspoken nature in life makes it easy for Georgia to guess how she would feel about all the milestones she’s missing, like Georgia’s wedding last year.

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“She was always so excited to be a mother of the bride, so through all of the pivotal points, whether it was dress shopping or picking the flowers … we knew exactly what she would’ve thought about everything,” the 33-year-old says.

Belinda was also desperate to become a grandmother and Georgia has considered naming a daughter after her if she and Lee start a family.

“If we do have kids, I know that my mum’s presence will be really felt,” she says.

“I would hope to bring up kids the same as my mum brought up my sister and I because you know, we had a really wonderful childhood.”

Becoming a mum would also change the way Georgia views Mother’s Day, her least favourite day of the year.

While most Aussies are celebrating with their mums this weekend, Georgia and those like her will be experiencing the grief of losing their mums all over again.

“It’s a kick in the guts and a real reminder that all these other people still get to celebrate with their mum on that day,” she admits.

“There really is that that yucky feeling of Mother’s Day, like you’re really missing out.”

While she doesn’t want to devalue the day for other families, the constant reminders in stores and on social media can make it even more traumatic.

For the first few years after Belinda’s death, Georgia “just put [her] head under the covers and pretended it didn’t exist” but that only left her more heartbroken.

Over the years she’s learned to spend to allowing herself to grieve on Mother’s Day while still finding pockets of joy.

This year, that means raising money for pancreatic cancer research in the hopes no other families have to experience a loss like hers.

WATCH: Georgia Love talks about Lee’s support during mum’s death. Story continues after video.

“The timing of me losing my mum was so public and so bizarre that I thought that must be for some greater reason,” she explains, a reference to her mum’s death coming just hours after her Bachelorette season finale aired.

Now she’s partnered with Pancreatic Cancer charity Pancare to donate $10 from each sale of a special PJ set from her sleepwear brand, Georgia Elliott, in the lead up to Mother’s Day.

“Unfortunately, COVID didn’t care about cancer sufferers,” she says.

“There were and still are people suffering and passing away from these diseases and they still need our funding and our support.”

Georgia hopes that by talking about the disease and what it took from her family, she can build awareness and help raise money for a cure that will save people like her mum.

In the meantime, she’s keeping Belinda’s memory alive in more ways than one.

“The older I get, the more people tell me that I’m just morphing into her more and more,” she says.

“It sounds like such a cliche, but really she was my best friend.”

Georgia is collaborating with Pancare to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research through sales of these PJs ahead of Mother’s Day.