Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent is still grieving the loss of her father, but embracing a silver lining as she endures her second Father’s Day without him.
The reality star shared an emotional message to Instagram on Sunday, remembering dad Kent Burningham, who died in April 2018.
“Last year was the first Father’s Day I didn’t have my dad,” she captioned the photo, which featured her facing a waterfall. “I sat and cried, watching this waterfall, trying to understand how this happened. How my life had changed forever, overnight. Today, I feel the same way.”
She continued, “Each moment that goes by without him I just think, damn I haven’t seen his face in over a year… I haven’t hugged him, or heard his voice. To say my heart is broken is an understatement. I will go forward in my life finding comfort in knowing he is looking down on me, being my angel like he has always been.”
Kent, 29, continued with a special shout-out to fiancé Randall Emmett, whose actions as a father make her “heart explode.”
“Looking at the father my fiancé is to his two little girls is enough to make my heart explode. His girls look at him the way I looked at my dad,” she wrote. “Even tho today is sad, I can’t help but feel happy and blessed. From my dad, to my brothers, & my incredible fiancé, the men in my life are, and will be, amazing fathers. Happy Father’s Day, dads ♥️.”
The heartfelt message was met with support from Kent’s Vanderpump Rules costars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute.
“Love you La,” Schroeder, 30, wrote, while Doute, 36, added, “love you baby girl 💛✨🙏🏼.”
Actress Kate Bosworth, 36, also weighed in, commenting, “Love you Lala, thank you for sharing your vulnerability, the honesty is beautiful ❤️ he’s watching over you very proud xx.”
The SUR hostess previously said that her father died after a stroke and a car accident, and was hospitalized for a month after the accident, according to Bravo’s The Daily Dish.
Burningham died on April 21, 2018, according to an obituary posted by The Salt Lake Tribune. Kent announced his death on Instagram a few days later by sharing a video of the father-daughter duo testing out a Snapchat filter.
“Rest in paradise, my sweet dad. The world seems to be spinning much slower. I’ve never felt so lost. I’ve never felt so sad. My world has crumbled,” she wrote.
She has since kept his memory alive through social media, and in March, Kent shared a sweet tribute marking what would have been his 65th birthday.
“I still haven’t accepted you’re not here anymore. I’ve been with you, on this day, for the last 27 years,” she captioned the post. “I miss you. Happy birthday, dad.”
Kent struggled with the loss last season on Vanderpump Rules. She has since admitted that she is an alcoholic and has given up drinking, following the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program.
“I’m so grateful that I have this program and that I can mourn him,” she said in March. “The program has allowed me to sit down and remember my dad in a clear frame of mind, and remember what he brought to my life, what he meant to me, what he taught me.”
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But the past year has also brought Kent joy: She got engaged to Hollywood producer Emmett in September 2018.
In an interview for SiriusXM’s The Jenny McCarthy Show, she revealed that Emmet, 48, had even asked her father for permission to marry her before he died.
“That makes me so happy, because I am struggling with the fact that I won’t have a dad to see me have babies or get married,” Kent said on the radio show. “So it just means a lot to me that Rand did that before he passed.”
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