To ask if you've ever felt like this about a celebrity's death

[twelveminutespast]

I didn't know Caroline and she didn't know me, but I can't shake this feeling of sadness about her death. It's really stopped me in my tracks.

To know that someone else felt like life wasn't worth living is just the most horrendous and awful thing to me. I do believe she would have made it through the court case the other side. I'm wondering what she was thinking during her final moments.

I feel so saddened.

Has anyone else ever felt like this about a celebrity when they've passed? If so, who? It probably sounds really pathetic as I didn't know her, but I can't stop thinking about it

I'm also concerned about the simplistic explanation of #bekind going about. Suicide should never be framed as a reasonable response to online trolling (or media hounding). It is a complex thing rarely due to a single factor, as the Samaritans emphasise, and because it is also imitational, it is reckless to frame any person's sad death by suicide as down to one thing.

This, so much this.

And people are also using #bekind to virtue signal about what good people they are as well.

Michael Hutchence. He was the backdrop to my teenage years and at low moments I'd often feel the world couldn't be too bad with him in it.
And then he wasn't.

And then 15 years on my beautiful cool older cousin killed himself too. To be honest, thanks to interviews and media, in some ways I knew Hutchence better. They seemed remarkably similar with the struggles they were going through. It's a tiny comfort to think that even if my cousin had had all the money in the world, it probably wouldn't have helped.

The press in general can do one though, along with the people who want to gloat over every gory detail so they can tell their friends how awful it is.

Celebrity deaths don't bother me. I'm not particularly upset by them. Is that bad?

Michael Hutchence

I’ve never felt devastated over a celebrity’s death, but I was shocked over River Phoenix. Him dying of a drugs overdose just didn’t make sense to me.

AgeLikeWine
Vicarious grief is a bizarre feature of modern life. I don’t grieve over the deaths of people I never met, nor would I expect anyone who had never met me to grieve over my death.

I remember pushing my trolley around a deserted supermarket on the day of Diana Windsor’s funeral, thinking the country had completely taken leave of its senses.

Human beings sometimes behave very oddly....

I totally agree. Something happened to a lot of people when Diana died which opened up the floodgates and has never been put back in the bottle.

I've never heard of Caroline Flack but even if I had, other than a passing thought about how sad to die at a young age, would have no further reaction.

It's all a bit mawkish.

Not this one but there have been a few, Patrick Swayze, I am still sad about him, Chester from Linkin Park, Larry Gogan, an Irish Deejay I grew up listening to. There have been a few others that have left me feeling sad for a while.

I only knew of this one when I was older but the very worst of them all for me was Heather O' Rourke :(

And then later - Corey Haim :(

John Lennon.

I still remember every detail about where I was and what I was doing, even down to what I was wearing. The initial news broadcast said he's been shot, then the next bulletin was that he'd died. I couldn't speak, I was so stunned.

I was also upset when John Peel died, I'd grown up listening to him and he'd really influenced my taste in music. It was a bit like losing a friend.

I'm ancient though, I can remember my parents being upset about the death of JFK.

I’m not usually affected by the deaths of people I don’t know but fir some reason the news about Caroline has shaken me.

It’s not that I particularly liked her; I only saw little clips of her in various things and didn’t really have an opinion one way or the other.

So I’m not sure why it hit me. Possibly because of the last pictures of her with her little dog 😕

Not really. I feel sad when anyone dies, and then it passes and I get on with my day.
Not the same as when it’s been a member of my own family/friends, which affects your ability to get up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other.
People die every single day under many many different preventable circumstances and you will tear yourself up inside trying to understand it.
Today will be the worst day of thousands of people’s lives as they lose a loved one. They won’t all be microscopically analysed in the media or on social media. I feel awful for Caroline’s family.

No, I have never felt anything beyond “what a shame for their loved ones” when someone I don’t know has died.
I also hate all the FB drama over such deaths by people who didn’t know them and the rants about how we should all be “kind”. It’s sad when anyone withMH issues feels they have no option than to kill themselves but death doesn’t turn people into Saints. They are the same imperfect person they were when they were alive
Some people are grief vampires and gladly jump on any bandwagon

It’s upset me too. I felt the same with Mike from love island, the way it happened and the fact he’s my brothers age.

I saw a picture of Caroline with her Mum comforting her, it broke my heart. She has a twin sister too.

Just thought I'd mention, that if any of you have young fans of Love Island, it might be worth casually gauging how they're handling the news today. Particularly teens who are struggling themselves. I'd keep them away from nasty comments on twitter etc. if you think they might find it upsetting.

Victoria Wood - thank you for the laughs.
Very sorry to hear that this lady has killed herself, is it terrible that I had never heard of her until today.

Didn’t know her. Didn’t watch anything she was in. A sad end. I feel for her family. She was a young woman.

40 is not young...........

I was, strangely, deeply affected by the death of Peaches Geldof. I say strangely as I didn’t follow or know much about her before she died. But when I began to read about her life - how’d she overcome this horrible tragedy, was married to a handsome man, two gorgeous kids, lovely house, had wealth - and it represented everything I longed for a sad, poor student with a difficult background and I couldn’t believe someone would risk that for drugs. I’m older and wiser now but still think about her regularly, and her kids.

Considering that some people live to 100, 40 is fairly young.

I feel sad about Caroline's death, as I would about anyone who took their own life. I feel sad that she clearly felt that this was the only way for her and that she was hounded by the media (and yes, the public). It would be weird to not feel sad about someone so troubled.

However, I don't understand people saying on this thread that they are still devastated years later about the death of someone they never met and that it still affects them. I feel sad that I won't see Alan Rickman (for example) make a new film but there seems to be some level of one upmanship going on sometimes about who is the most devastated. I would say that surely that will be a persons family and friends.

I’m 58. I think of all the things I’ve done/achieved since age 40-45. 40 IS young.

The death of Peaches Geldof was sad too as it really seemed like she had turned things around.
Most people had no idea she was using heroin again and the thought of her baby son being there alone whilst she died is heartbreaking. Her husband had a lot to take on at a young age.

40 is not young

Really? On this thread?

Yeah, Chester, Robin William's and also caroline. Feel sad even though I didn't know them

My 32 year-old friend said the other day that 30 is 'not that young'. I despair, honestly.