Debbie McGee made the confession as she appeared on the BBC Two show which follows several celebrities trekking the Camino de Santiago.
A chance meeting with a fellow traveller saw the 59-year-old shed tears over her husband Paul, who died from a brain tumour in 2016.
The moment unfolded as Debbie spoke to a young man named Liam who was walking the Camino in memory of his late father, and they shared in their grief.
Debbie told Liam: “I lost my husband just over a year ago and the way I kind of dealt with it is to keep really busy and when I’m on my own, it really hits me.”
Liam retorted: “Keeping active is the main thing. You don’t have to grieve and just curl up in a ball.”
Debbie continued: “When you know you’re losing someone, it is too hard to say the things that you want to say because you don’t want to cry in front of them.”
The pair then discussed how the expedition and meeting new people could help with their feelings.
Liam said: “Speaking to strangers, they don’t judge you.
“With your family you don’t want to upset them but with someone you don’t know, you can bear your soul to them.”
Debbie later reflected on the meeting, telling the camera: “It was a special moment to meet Liam, it made me think that why everyone thinks the Camino Way is so special.
“I can’t think of anywhere in the world where someone else would open up with such raw emotion so quickly.”
She then fought back tears as she explained: “He’s only 27 and so I just, I get sad, but I’m always able to then find something that makes me think ‘you can’t be sad because there is always someone who is much worse off than you are’.”
The former magician’s assistant had earlier revealed that thinking about Paul could trigger an outpour of emotions.
She explained: “I can talk about Paul a lot but I can’t think about things that we did. I go completely.”
Debbie also confessed why she was doing the pilgrimage, saying: “I’m in a place in my life where I don’t really know where I am, I just hope that at the end of the pilgrimage there will be some sort of enlightenment.”
Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago returns Friday at 9pm on BBC Two.
