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 remember my mom sobbing when Freddie Mercury died.

2016 was such a bad year. Bowie, Prince and the George and as a huge fan of George i did spend boxing day mourning. Still cant believe he's gone.

I feel sad reading about any celeb deaths but as I don’t personally know them I don’t really feel anything more than that... I will appreciate what they have done for their area of expertise. Heath Ledger was a sad one, taken far too early. It will be a shame when the likes of David Jason are no longer here. But they generally live on through their work.

It nice to see so many people with empathy and compassion over the death of someone they didn't know but whose talent they enjoyed and respected.
I find it depressing that a few people can't relate at all though "why should I care that someone I don't know has died" really? That says more about you than you realise.

I was in tears when Steve Irwin, George Michael, Chester Bennington, Robin Williams and Chris Cornwell died. All have been a huge influence on my life and it hurt to see them gone. I'm dreading losing David Attenborough.

*Cornell

Diana's death upset me the most as my sister and I are similar ages to W&H. I felt devastated for them.

I was also upset at Robin Williams death but not crying about it

I know she isn’t dead but Barbara Windsor makes me cry! Such a character and to see her so frail and confused is gutting.

People like Victoria wood and Alan Rickman and Bruce forcyth I find really sad.

I suppose I think that they are either showing off in some odd way. Fb seems full of people doing slightly out of kilter things to impress.

Or they must be mourning for what the celeb represented to them, mother/ father figure, perfect lover, best friend you never met, some idea of ideal perfection. Or their youth maybe.
I think there’s an element of this in even our real relationships, the thing that the person represents to you, as well as how you get on and all the usual stuff.

I've felt momentary sadness over many of the deaths mentioned but the one that really upset me was Rachel Bland from Radio 5 Live. I'd been listening to her You, Me and the Big C podcast about her struggle with breast cancer and she was so lovely and honest and courageous, when she talked about how she was trying to prepare her toddler son for her death and buying him birthday presents and cards for the future as she wouldn't be there to celebrate with him it really upset me, especially as my son is the same age as hers.
However, I didn't post all over social media about it.

I never understood celebrity grieving until Rik Mayall's death.

Rationalising it I think it's because I watched him from age 11 onwards through teenage years when you really move away from your parents' sphere. Initially me and my mum noticed "Kevin Turvey" and watched together but she bailed out at The Young Ones which was just unfathomable to her!

It was somehow personal, which logically makes no sense of course.

Peaches Geldof really shocked me just as her mother's death had. The similarities just made it so sad. So much pain

I cried when Chester Bennington died. His music was so important and influential to me that I was genuinely gutted. If you listen to Linkin Park's lyrics now it's awful to realise how he was feeling throughout his troubled life. Also, he had 4 (I think) kids and a loving wife. Knowing how depressed he felt by one of his closest friends, Chris Cornell's (another one I cried a bit about) suicide just makes it absolutely devastating.

I was really upset when Robin Williams died because of the circumstances and how shocking and out of nowhere it came from.

I felt sad about Bruce Forsyth but his bad health wasn't a shock.

I'll be sad when David Attenborough and the Queen dies. I get emotional when celebrities childrens have died but I would if any child has passed.

I was very affected by the death of Terry Pratchett. My dad and I both love his books, we had an often difficult relationship during my teens and it was one of the few things that we could talk about together. Aside from that, he was an amazing, funny, human writer, and one of the few male authors who wrote excellent, varied and interesting female characters that aren't gratuitously sexualised. My dad and I went to see the exhibition about his life and work in Salisbury and both teared up a bit.

The first time I felt a pang of "that's really sad" about a celebrity death was Alan Rickman and David Bowie.

Then Anthony Bourdain died and I still feel sad when I think about it. I've seen and read everything he has produced and there's nobody quite like him. Such a captivating personality.

THEN Chester Bennington died and I was gutted. Linkin Park were such a part of my formative years - I remember listening to Hybrid Theory on the school bus with my personal CD player I still can't listen to any of their music and I cried at Mike Shinoda's tribute at Reading.

Rik Mayall's death really saddened me - I still think comedy is worse off without him.

Me too

Anyone else reading some of these and going "Shit! I didn't know/ had forgotten he/ she had died!" ? Maybe my bad memory but it's like going through it all again with these! Rik Mayall? Wtf?! It still doesn't seem real that he's dead - so much so that I'd forgotten he was!

I think Jo Cox probably affected me the most too.

Also Karen Carpenter and Elizabeth Sladen.

Someone mentioned Rachel Bland - in the same vein, Gabrielle Grunewald - an elite US runner, who lived with cancer for 10 years before it finally got her at the age of 32.

I don’t understand people getting excited by celebrities dying. Then posting on social media about it.

Very odd

Not at all. Couldn’t give two hoots

@namechangenugget it's not excitement and even if it was, we get excited by their lives (hence why they're famous) so it'd be weird if we didn't care about their deaths.

Chester Bennington’s death really saddened me.
I welled up when I saw the news but I don’t think I properly cried over the initial news. But I did bawl like a baby a little while later when Linkin Park performed at Reading Festival “I want you to sing it so loud, Chester can hear you” I think that was when it really hit home for me “oh shit. He is really dead”.
I grew up listening to Linkin Park and their music has always been really special to me, so seeing them perform without Chester for the first time was like a kick in the gut. But I wouldn’t go as far as to say I was properly “grieving” like you would if a family member or friend had died
www.facebook.com/bbcradio1/videos/232819947413129/

@amusedbush literally just went back and saw your post after I posted mine!! Poor Chester

How on earth do people take/are allowed to take days off for this...!!!

Genuinely, people knowing colleagues taking a week off...HOW..?

When Mike from Love Island died back in March I was really cut up about that. I didn't follow his career or have him on social media, but I just felt so sad that someone could end their life like that. Very sad.

Had bad dreams and intrusive thoughts that idlt could happen to someone I know etc.