Prince Kaybee’s Quiet Reminder About Grief Hits Home for South Africans This Festive Season

by Zaghrah Anthony

“You Don’t Control Grief”: Prince Kaybee Shares a Truth Many Are Afraid to Say Out Loud

As South Africa shifts into festive mode, the time of year when families fill their homes with noise, food and familiar chaos — there’s a softer, quieter feeling sitting beneath it all.
For many, the holidays aren’t just about celebration. They also reopen empty chairs, missing hugs, and memories of loved ones who should still be here.

For award-winning producer Prince Kaybee, that quiet ache became part of his reality this year. The musician lost his mother in September, and instead of retreating from the public eye, he’s begun speaking openly about how sharply the loss still cuts.

A Moment of Honesty That Stopped People in Their Tracks

On X (formerly Twitter), Kaybee dismissed the idea that grief is something you can “manage” or outsmart.

“The idea that you will be able to control grief is absurd,” he wrote.

When a user gently asked how he was coping, his reply was raw and disarming:

“I broke down during a business meeting yesterday, so yeah.”

It was the kind of honesty South Africans are not used to seeing from celebrities — especially male public figures in a country where emotional vulnerability is often brushed aside.

His comments quickly sparked conversations online.
People shared their own stories, some admitting they still cry years after losing a parent; others confessed they’ve never quite felt “normal” again.

It wasn’t pity.
It was recognition.

Why His Openness Matters, Especially Here

South Africa carries an unspoken culture of “toughing it out.”
We’re a nation that has survived so much that talking about grief often feels like a luxury. Yet, the reality is far more universal: loss touches everyone, regardless of fame, money or strength.

Mental-health practitioners often say grief is not a single feeling — it’s a whole landscape.
It can arrive as:

  • anger

  • exhaustion

  • numbness

  • confusion

  • or sudden bursts of sadness triggered by the smallest things

Some days you feel functional.
Other days, you fall apart in public — like Kaybee did — and there’s no shame in that.

A Story That Echoes Across Generations

When I think about grief, I’m reminded of something my own mother once told me. She lost her mother at 21, and decades later, the grief hasn’t disappeared. It has simply changed shape.

As a child, that terrified me.
How could someone grieve for a lifetime?

But as an adult, I understand now what I didn’t then: losing a mother alters you permanently. You don’t “move on.” You move with it.

It’s a sentiment beautifully captured in Andrew Garfield’s well-known reflection on losing his mother — a quote that many South Africans reshared after Kaybee’s posts went viral.

Garfield said missing someone can feel like a “gift,” because the sadness is tied to love — real, generous love that shaped you.

There’s something grounding in that idea.
A reminder that grief is not the opposite of love, but one of its final expressions.

Kaybee’s Message Arrives at the Right Time

With December fast approaching, many families are preparing to gather again. For some, it will be the first Christmas without a mother, father, sibling, partner or friend. For others, it might be the tenth — and it still hurts like the first.

Kaybee’s honesty doesn’t just speak to his own pain; it gives others permission to admit:

  • “I’m not okay.”

  • “I still cry sometimes.”

  • “I still miss them deeply.”

And perhaps that is the unexpected gift in his vulnerability.

Choosing Softness in a Hard World

Maybe this festive season, the lesson is simple:
Life is short, unpredictable, and sometimes unbearably fragile.

So while our homes fill with visitors and laughter, there’s room and need, for tenderness too.

Let’s be softer with each other.
Let’s give people grace on the days they can’t hold it together.
Let’s say the things we’ve postponed for too long.
Let’s love loudly, intentionally, and without delay.

Tomorrow is never guaranteed.
But today, we still have time to be kind.

Source: IOL

Featured Image: X{@MDNnewss}