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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How badly do celebrity deaths affect you?

294 replies

StillCoughingandLaughing · 16/07/2019 22:29

A casual friend (former colleague) has been in a real state about a celebrity death. She has posted on FB again today, several weeks on, about how she can’t handle it and when will the tears stop coming etc. Another of her friends has replied saying she doesn’t think she’ll ever get over it 🙄

It was a sad and sudden death, but seriously? This wasn’t a relative or friend - it was someone she’s seen on TV. I do understand there is a sense of grief, but weeks of tears and sorrowful social media posts just seems so OTT.

I can think of one celebrity death I was really gutted about, but the idea that I would be in bits about it weeks later to the point that I had to get mawkish about it online seems ridiculous. AIBU for thinking that kind of grief should be reserved for someone you’ve at least met?

OP posts:
Isatis · 16/07/2019 22:57

I was very sad about Victoria Wood and Jeremy Hardy, but the notion of crying for weeks on end about someone you've never met seems ludicrous to me.

Somersetlady · 16/07/2019 22:58

I don’t get it.

Could it be a form of attention seeking?

RaininSummer · 16/07/2019 22:59

It is weird and over dramatic to carry on about a celeb death for ages. The ones that got me were Bowie ans Kirsty mcCall as it was so brutal. I will be very sad when a Jagger leaves us too.

Tillygetsit · 16/07/2019 22:59

David Bowie died a week after my father. For me, it was both my heroes gone at the same time. I think I got the grief all muddled up and had a pretty rough time for a while but I didnt splurge it all over social media.

chipsnmayo · 16/07/2019 23:00

I was really sad this week when Cameron Boyle died, my DD loved him on Disney as kid. She is the same age as him and also has epilepsy so that really impacted me, he was so young.

I am a bit of an environmentalist so probably the last one was that really affected was Steve Irwin.

Outsomnia · 16/07/2019 23:02

I doubt any so called Celebrity would give it a shit at MY passing.

Nuff said.

TBH it is a kind of shock to hear it happened to those we know from celebrity land, but for me it only lasts five minutes. I have no connection with any of them, or them with me either.

JAMMFYesPlease · 16/07/2019 23:03

I've ben sad for what's lost or what won't happen and in some cases just shocked, but not cry your eyes out sad about anyone them. I don't know them, just the personality seen on tv/in movies.

The ones that shocked/hit me the most were Robin Williams, Chester from Linkin Park, Alan Rickman and David Bowie. It's usually the circumstances. I now can't listen to Linkin Park or watch any of Robin Williams movies without wondering what was really going on when writing the songs/acting the part.

Luke Perry and the boy from the Descendants were shocks. I felt sad for their families.

Zebedee88 · 16/07/2019 23:05

I stopped watching the Fast and Furious films when Paul Walker died...however I think I'm now ready to watch the one he was filming when he died...so i guess I'm finally getting over it !! Grin

YourSarcasmIsDripping · 16/07/2019 23:05

Not at all. I don't know them,I don't care about them.

But then again I never screamed,cried,orgasmed or fainted at a concert/sight of a celebrity either.

AquaPris · 16/07/2019 23:07

Not at all

MustBeAWeasly · 16/07/2019 23:07

I have a work colleague who when a certain celebrity died got a tattoo in memory of him 😑

happyhillock · 16/07/2019 23:08

I don't get sad or upset when a celebrity dies i don't know them, my parent's died 10 and 7 year's ago i still grieve and miss them terribly, no celebrity will care when i die

BoronationStreet · 16/07/2019 23:09

They don't.

groundanchochillipowder · 16/07/2019 23:10

They don't affect me at all.

LilQueenie · 16/07/2019 23:11

You don't have to know someone to be affected. It can take people by surprise but it does show a lot of empathy. Let them grieve how they want.

JollyHolly30 · 16/07/2019 23:13

@StillCoughingandLaughing Is it that she's never lost anyone close to her in real life?

I know that after losing my Mum as a teenager, no celebrity death could ever make me react strongly. However, everyone has their own experiences of personal grief and trauma, or as in your friends case, perhaps a lack thereof, resulting in this OTT response?

GabsAlot · 16/07/2019 23:14

Ive always been sad aboutfreddie mecury feels like a waste-recently when doris day died i got emotional watched her films growing up suppose it just makes you think of things when you were young

sneakypinky · 16/07/2019 23:15

I felt genuinely sad about Chester Bennington.

SuntanC · 16/07/2019 23:15

Not quite 'celebrity' but I did cry when there were a couple of accidents a few years ago that killed two members of the Red Arrows. The Reds have always been heroes to me (aviation geek alert) and I was genuinely shocked and sad. I have had wee cries about people I don't know having died, but then I'm a very emotional person. My sister, on the other hand, thinks I'm ridiculous (in the nicest possible way!) as she doesn't understand how I can get upset about strangers. People just have different types of things that get under their skin, I suppose.

TheHandsOfNeilBuchanan · 16/07/2019 23:16

I sometimes think about the loss of talent and feel sad I'll never share that in the same way with DS, but only for a second. I'm thinking about Chester Bennington, I saw linkin park live at a festival for the first time when I was 16 and his voice just had me transfixed and I'd always hoped I'd take DS to festivals when he's older and want him to experience what I did. I hope Dave Grohl is around for a bit. It seems odd to get so personally emotional about someone you didn't know though, and I'd wonder how much of it was attention seeking. I never understood the Diana hysteria either, although I was only 12 when she died.

GabsAlot · 16/07/2019 23:16

Oh also luke perry i met him once andhe was lovely was really shocked when he passed

LilQueenie · 16/07/2019 23:16

Strangely only 1 celebrity really upset me for a long time and still sometimes does. Its not like I followed their career either. It happened and hit me out the blue. Some celebs I feel a bit melancholy when they pass like Bowie others nothing at all.

TheHandsOfNeilBuchanan · 16/07/2019 23:17

@sneakypinky cross post, it was too soon

MadameRenard · 16/07/2019 23:19

I was devasted when River Phoenix died (I was 14). I was also saddened and a little shocked when David Bowie died and also Patrick Swayze. But, I never became one of the people who post all over social media about it.

Seren85 · 16/07/2019 23:21

I have been sad when musicians have passed away (Dio, Dimebag, Vinnie Paul Abbot, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington come to mind) and others like Victoria Wood. I stayed up late to watch Lemmys funeral and cried big ugly tears but I think that was more hearing the stories his friends and family told. I will be very very upset when Stevie Nicks dies but I can't see me posting as described on social media.