Steps star Faye Tozer became visibly emotional while talking about her late mum on Loose Women, expressing how hard it’s been over the past year to not have her on the other end of the phone.

In August last year, the 47-year-old announced in a post shared on Instagram that her mother had died, describing her as a ‘lioness’ and a ‘warrior’ who ‘lived her life to the fullest’.

Beforehand, Faye had spoken out about her mum’s cancer diagnoses, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 before it returned a year later as lung cancer.

On Monday’s Loose Women, the singer joined the panel in the ITV studio, where they spoke about mammograms in light of the news of Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Following the presenters’ discussion, Faye joined them at the table, where Charlene White said to her: ‘It’s been a really difficult year for you, hasn’t it?’

Mentioning the conversation that they’d just had about the duchess, the host continued: ‘Your mum went through that, and then unfortunately it returned as lung cancer and she passed last year, didn’t she?’

Faye suffered the loss of her ‘lioness’ mum last year (Picture: Rex/ITV/Instagram/@fayetozersmith)

‘Yeah, it’s nearly been a year already. So I’m going through all of the firsts that you do,’ the performer responded.

At this point, Faye, who’s starring as Maggie Jones in the UK tour of 42nd Street this summer, became choked up.

Having opened up about experiencing perimenopausal symptoms in the past few years, she shared: ‘All of the firsts that you go through, and it’s a real void without mum.’

She then blew a kiss into the air above her, adding: ‘Love ya.’

Steps celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2022 (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

Charlene, 43, reached across the table to take Faye’s hand, telling her: ‘It’s ok. It’s alright.’

Faye added: ‘I think because my mum was my biggest critic and my biggest fan, and she was the reason that I do shows or I’m in the business, and just not having her on the end of the phone. It’s a tough one.’

During her interview on Loose Women, the former Strictly Come Dancing star admitted that she feared the impact that her perimenopausal symptoms could have on her ability to perform.

‘I have had symptoms for a good sort of three years but they all sort of became very very, apparent last December and I had the fear of going back to work because of all of these things,’ she said.

‘Brain fog… imagine going on stage and you just stop, you can’t remember your lines. Physical things that happen to you as well and you know, getting into costumes and things like that, and the anxiety I had…

‘What was really interesting was, I was getting butterflies and I couldn’t really realise why. Physical shaking, like I would in an audition, that sort of real quivering. I was thinking, am I going to get back on stage again? Is this going to stop me?’

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV.

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‘Not having her on the end of the phone. It’s a tough one,’ the Steps singer said.