Ebru Şallı Could Not Hold Back Her Tears While Remembering Her Son Pars
Model and television presenter Ebru Şallı spoke emotionally about her son Pars, who died from lymphoma at the age of nine. Recalling the loss, she said she had never stopped hoping, but had come to accept that her son was no longer suffering.
“May God spare everyone from going through this. May no one be tested through their child. I never gave up,” Şallı said. “God saw it fit this way and took Pars from me. I am grateful for that. I didn’t want him to suffer any longer.”
Pars, whose father is Şallı’s former husband Harun Tan, died on April 16, 2020. Şallı has described the possibility of her son spending many more years in hospital and enduring continued pain as an even more difficult ordeal. The thought that Pars did not have to suffer for longer has become a source of consolation, she said, even as the grief remains profound.
As she spoke about her son, Şallı was unable to hold back her tears. She also recalled how Pars, despite being so young, would think about her and show concern for her. Those memories, she said, left a lasting mark on her and continue to shape the way she remembers him.
Şallı shared her reflections during an appearance on Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan’s television programme *Empathy*. The conversation touched not only on her bereavement but also on how her personal life has changed since the loss. She said she had been living alone for three years and did not see marriage as part of her future.
“I have lost faith in marriage,” Şallı said. She noted that she had experienced a long marriage and that, although she and her former husband eventually decided to separate, they remained on good terms and shared children. Asked whether she would marry again, she said it did not feel right for her now and was not something she would choose.
Şallı married Ozan Orhon in 1997, and they divorced the following year. In 2002, she married Harun Tan, the father of her two sons; the couple ended their marriage in 2013. She later married Uğur Akkuş in 2019. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2024.
Her comments make clear that accepting the reality of Pars’s death has not meant forgetting him or feeling less pain. Rather, Şallı has spoken of trying to find meaning in the belief that her son was spared further suffering. Her words reflect the difficult balance many grieving parents describe: holding on to memories while learning to live with an absence that cannot be undone.
The details she shared also show how grief can affect a person’s outlook on relationships and the future. Şallı did not present her decision against remarriage as a judgment about other people’s choices; she described it as a personal conclusion shaped by her own experiences. For now, she said, marriage is not a path she wants to pursue.
The original report also included separate breaking news from Afyonkarahisar. In the Emirdağ district, two cars collided head-on, and four people were reported dead in initial assessments. The highway was closed to traffic while emergency teams continued working at the scene.