How badly do celebrity deaths affect you?

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

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?

I also felt sad about Lemmy - I thought he was indestructible.

There must be something wrong with me cos reading this post has made me cry!! I've never cried at a celebrity death though

My MH took a real hit when Chester Bennington from Linkin Park died a few years back. He came from an abusive childhood much like myself and how he wrote about it helped me enormously in dealing with my PTSD issues.
Chester's suicide made me realise something about myself that I'd been avoiding. We survive child abuse but never ever get over it or accept it or forgive it. He seemed to have it all - a lovely family, a great relationship and a hugely successful career but there is always that inner voice telling you that you are nothing and worthless. Sometimes survivors can't listen any more and take their own lives suddenly without warning because it's like you're gripping the cliff and your fingers slide off. It happened to Chester and I know that one day it could happen to me.

I couldn't listen to any of his music for a year. Last year I saw Mike Shinoda at the Reading Festival and I cried throughout his set. I'm glad I went because Mike's pain was there for all to see and it gave me the courage to discuss how I felt with my DP. I'm still clinging to the cliff.

I also cried for two days when Princess Diana died. I was six months pregnant with my first DC and all I could think about was her two boys. I was a bit teary when David Bowie and George Michael died because there would be no more new music and it's a bit of your youth gone.

I can't really see myself beingthat upset with any celebrity death. But I'm not a huge fan of anyone. I do stop for a second and then wow. But not enough to cry.

A friend of mine was a huge fan of Bowie. Basically his music was soundtrack to her life and she played his music whenever she felt a certain way. I can see how his death was upsetting to her.

David Bowie's death affected me, but just made me thoughtful and quiet for a few hours. If I listen to his music or see a photo it does bring me up short. But I was not wailing about it. I didn't know him, just admired him, he was a one off. If Kate Bush died I would be upset, and the Queen. I am not a monarchist but it really would be the end of an era. I am not a massive Dolly Parton fan but like her personality and energy. I think I would be upset if she died.

I was also sad when Victoria Wood and Terry Wogan died.

I can remember when Elvis died. My parents were not fans that I am aware of (they liked the Rolling Stones) but I was in bed and they woke me up and told me that Elvis had died. Which was a bit weird when I look back.

I wept when Sir Bobby Robson died and I still feel sad at his passing now, but he reminded me of my Grandad who I adored so it’s probably more that than anything else.

I was very sad about Alan Rickman. And Wogan, I did cry a little when they played 'That'll Do' in tribute to him on the the radio because there's nothing like a brass band to get me weeping. But the one I was most upset by was Jo Cox. I saw on the internet at work that she had been attacked, and had Radio 4 on in the car on the way home for updates. When it was announced that she had died I had to pull over because I was sobbing so hard. No, I didn't know her, but she represented something good that I sensed was leaving us - and she was so young and left such tiny children behind. Just tragic.

I think a lot of it has to do with the suddenness of it.Bowie never revealed he had cancer.He had released an album.
Freddie admitted he had HIV a day before he died.

Its the there one day and gone the next is hard to understand.

Keith Flint's death knocked me for 6. He was one of us, an influence I grew up with, a part of my heritage. I'd just seen him live at their last concert of their latest tour. Prior to that I didn't get it either.

Leonard Cohen... but i don't dwell on it😬

David Bowie and Rik Mayall are the only ones that really ruffled my feathers, but you know, I was a bit downhearted for a day, but that’s all. I think those two hit home because their work was so much part of my teen years.

Oh and Terry Wogan... still missed on the radio as he was always there/comforting... but again i don't dwell on it... (Bowie of course - same)

I don't get upset about them at all. I don't know them personally. People die.

I still feel sad when I think about Victoria Wood, she was part of my 'growing up'. So talented, so funny and so loved. It's hard to watch anything she's in, the first time I've ever felt like this. No weeping or public posting how difficult it's been because it hasn't. I hope her family know how much she was appreciated and that she is still thought of.

I generally don’t care for celebrities, but I was genuinely sad when Stephen Gately died. Apart from Steve Irwin (also a terrible thing), most famous people I knew who had died at that point were either older or lived a ‘rock and roll lifestyle’. To just fall asleep and die in your early 30’s, it was just shocking. I’m pretty much the same age now that he was when he died - the thought it could all be over the next time I shut my eyes, I can’t even contemplate it.

I don't really get upset at all; it's obviously sad when anyone dies but not knowing them personally I fail to understand why some people get so distraught.
Freddie Mercury and Victoria Woods' deaths did seem particularly sad but apart from that I guess it's inevitable for everyone and everything.

They effect me in the sense that I get that sinking feeling in my stomach and I spend a few minutes thinking about them and feeling sad for the people they have left behind, but then I feel the same for anyone I know of who passes away regardless of whether they are famous or not.
I think it's natural to feel like that.
Not natural to dwell on it though.

I was sad when David Bowie died because he was part of my youth and it was a sign of my own mortality too.

Bowie's death has been the one that saddened (and still saddens) me the most. Our paths crossed in his Beckenham Arts Lab days, when some art students I knew wanted to set up something similar in Croydon, around the time Space Oddity was released. He was an almost-local hero, and we spent most of a Sunday afternoon queueing to be make sure we got in to see him play in a room above a pub.
His albums have been the soundtrack to my life, and any Bowie track takes me back to where, and when, and who and what...

They day I got Black Star, I played it in the car on the way home, thinking "Fantastic, but dark". We listened to it at home that evening, talking about how it carried a sense of foreboding. The following morning, it was announced that he'd died. I can't listen to it now, just thinking about it makes me feel sort of - well, desolate, I suppose. His music was just always there.

Other deaths (John Lennon, which was such a shock, Prince, Caroline Aherne, Kirsty Macoll*, Amy Winehouse, Linda Smith, Ian Dury, Jeremy Hardy immediately spring to mind) have made me sad, but sad in the sense that I'll miss their work, and that they had so much more great work to give. Bowie's death felt more personal, and visceral, and gave me a real sense of my own mortality.

*I knew two people who'd played in Kirsty's first band and were also connected with the same crowd of art students through which I'd met Bowie. Weird, huh?

Terry Wogan.
Something exceptional about him.

I’m not normally affected by celebrity deaths but I was so sad about Whitney Houston. I think it is because I had been listening to her since I was a kid. I think sometimes a sad news event will be more meaningful to some individuals over others as it triggers something personal to them.

Anton Yelchin's death played on my mind for a good few weeks, tbh. A horrible way to go, and so young too. Complete waste of a life in a freak accident. :(

"I think it depends on the celebrity. I grieved Terry Pratchett but I've been reading his books since I was quite young. It felt like the fictional characters I'd grown attached to all died with him."

I couldn't agree more, @BinkyBaa. I grieved similarly for Victoria Wood, for the same reasons. I was especially sad that there is no chance that we will ever find out what happened to all the dinnerladies characters (not that there was any chance really).

I feel a pang of sadness if it wasn’t someone I admired or always liked, but never much more than that.

A girl I worked with years ago took the day off when Michael Jackson died as she was so bereft.

I understand why some people may grieve privately for somebody famous, but with your acquaintance it sounds like attention seeking and competitive grief. I've never cried over the death of a celebrity but I was particularly saddened by the deaths of Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Rick Mayall and Robin Williams, they all still had so much more to give. I am dreading when David Attenborough goes however.

@StillCoughingandLaughing
Anton Yelchin was cut down in his prime.Would have been a really superb actor.Gone too soon.