Actress Nadine Lustre recently opened up about the hardest and most challenging chapter in her life — when her younger brother Isaiah passed away in 2017 and how she received advice to "just keep working" while grieving.
In a sit-down interview with One Down on Wednesday, the 29-year-old actress recalled how she had to maintain her professionalism while filming a variety show at the time and grieve the sudden death of his brother.
"The most challenging one I’ve gone through was when my brother passed away. My brother was going through all of these challenges in his mental health as well. I was still doing a variety show every day, so can you imagine?" she stressed.
"I was grieving at the time, but on TV, I had to smile and interact with people like nothing happened. That was really hard," she added.
Nadine revealed that she once asked for a break, but was only told to ‘just keep working., you’ll forget about it.’
"It just goes to show how uneducated and out of touch we are when it comes to mental health issues," she said.
Looking back, Lustre said she remains unsure how she “[pulled] through” as she said it was a time when she “couldn’t really do anything” due to contractual obligations. "
"It’s kind of, like, autopilot. You had to pull through because it’s a responsibility. As much as you want to take a break and breathe from it, you can’t really do anything especially if you’re under contract. You have to honor that," she said.
It was in October 2017 when Lustre's brother, who was 16 years old then, was found lifeless in their home. Authorities ruled the cause as depression and suicide.
