"I could hear he was very shaken and trying to keep himself together," Sloane told the Herald on Sunday from Sri Lanka.
"I reached across and said, 'I'm sorry but are you okay?'. He said no and that his sister and her kids were killed that morning at the breakfast at the Shangri-La.
"He was heading to Colombo to help comfort his brother in law who apparently nipped out of breakfast to reception briefly. The bomb went off and he survived but his family didn't.
"He said that Ben was lucky to escape but didn't think he felt that way and probably wished he had been with them."
Sloane – one of six socialites who starred in 2016 series of "The Real Housewives of Auckland" – said she was brought to tears after hearing of how the bombings had devastated the British family.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks.
Suicide bombers detonated their deadly bombs while Sloane and Lorimer were flying from Auckland to Singapore, where they had a brief stopover before heading to Sri Lanka.
Sloane learnt about the atrocity after turning her phone while in transit in Singapore, receiving messages from family and friends and also emails from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's SafeTravel registry.
"We had 20 minutes to go before we had to start boarding our flight to Colombo and too little time to digest the information and make an educated decision to abort our trip or not, so we boarded the flight," she said.
Sloane said Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport was full of military personnel.
The couple initially stayed at a boutique hotel away from Colombo's "tourist strip" and Sloane said the "drive was eerily quiet with no one on the streets except stray dogs".
They also made the decision early on to remain in Sri Lanka until their scheduled departure.
Proactive safety steps they had taken include deciding not to travel by train, changing where they stayed last night to avoid Colombo and also avoiding some popular destination for western tourists.
Sloane said: "I am conscious I have two teenagers at home that I would like to return to".
During their travels they had encountered numerous police and military check points.
While Sloane and Lorimer didn't cancel their trip, she said many resorts and hotels which would be packed with tourists at this time of the year were empty.
"Our car was searched at one historical site and we were body searched at another," Sloane said.
"Unfortunately for the Sri Lankan people, tourists have cancelled and occupancy at the small resorts we have been is very low. I feel sorry for the hotels. Staff have been laid off.
"The people refer to it as 'the bad situation' . . . they are trying to be positive but their livelihood is at stake."
Sloane said Sri Lanka and its people – including all of its Buddhist, Christian, Tamil and Muslim populations - were "beautiful".
"For extremists and [their] wealthy supporters to get away with unsettling this country is heartbreaking."
