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

@09Wigglewaggle01 Me too!
I remember almost every detail of the day that it was announced that Pete Duel had died. I was 13 at the time and he was the first man that I had "fallen in love with". My bedroom was covered in pictures and posters and Alias Smith and Jones was my absolute favourite TV programme ever!

It was new year's eve 1971. I remember my elder sister phoned at lunchtime (I was home, as it was school holidays and she had a part-time job in a shop in the town where we lived). She'd been on her lunch break and heard the announcement on the radio.

I rushed to turn the TV on, refusing to believe it, but there it was on the news.

My little world more or less fell apart from that moment and, I know it sounds ridiculous and melodramatic, but I never fully recovered from the shock of the loss of this man whom I had never met.

My parents simply didn't understand the strength of my feelings or how much I was genuinely grieving. I became very depressed and had suicidal thoughts a lot of the time. My parents just kept telling me to stop being stupid and pull myself together. In those days, it was the general belief that children didn't/couldn't get depression - or certainly that's what my family believed.

As with most bereavement experiences, my grief did gradually subside but the experience changed me permanently.

I still think of Pete from time to time, especially on his birthday, the 24th of February. This year he would have been celebrating his 80th birthday.

Incidentally, I believe that his death was never officially designated as suicide. The coroner recorded an open verdict, meaning that it was impossible to determine whether the death was intentional or a tragic accident. His girlfriend, who was upstairs in the bedroom at the time that the fatal shot was fired by Pete downstairs, stated that she didn't believe that he had killed himself.

You're right, he was at the peak of his career at the time. Yes, he was tied in to a contract with Universal Studios and was getting fed up with playing Hannibal Heyes (he said he thought the series was pretty dire and regretted signing up for it) but it wouldn't have been forever. So, I do question what the motivation for suicide would have been.

I prefer to think it was a simple accident, that he was fiddling with the gun and hadn't realised that it was loaded. We'll never know for sure....

I only recall one interview I saw of Peaches and guess who it was with? Can't think of her name - but she's blonde, about 50 and hates everyone?

This is the interview. It's Katie Hopkins. I thought for a young girl, Peaches acquitted herself quite well (btw I'm against attachment parenting really).

I surprised myself by crying about this yesterday, even though I've never had any particular interest in Caroline Flack. I think it's because we're of a similar age and I've also had my fair share of mental health problems over the years, so it touches a raw nerve. It's a reminder of how vulnerable we all are, if things go wrong in our lives. Of course, it's also just a tragic waste.

If my life was played out in the media, I'd be headline news daily. Mercifully, I have the privacy to be ill. I still struggle with feeling suicidal. I can not imagine the pressure of knowing (allegedly) that I'd assaulted someone I loved, that the police were called, that the media had got hold of it, that I had lost my career, that I was facing perhaps a custodial sentence at worst and that nobody could stop hating me online. I think it's enough to have driven anyone over the edge. I think it would be more in line to say a prayer for her soul than the other threads on here which are mercilessly still attacking her. She's dead! You can stop now!

And this is how Ireland is covering the story

www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/she-lived-her-life-fully-in-the-public-eye-and-felt-the-pressure-yet-she-looked-out-for-others-38959812.html?fbclid=IwAR2srxAsQjZY9mZxCutX7jJbqMHx2Q4a_M4kdcPj7J6O6z3Xb5HEhIYXkzk

At least we have respect for the dead.

I think because although she was famous she did seem like one of your friends in the way she presented and came across. She had faults like we can all relate to too maybe. Not sure i can quite put my finger on it but everyone is sad about this one

@NoSharon are you Irish? I cant work out if you praising or slating that article but I see no problem with it

I'm Irish and I'm utterly shocked at the threads on here even in her death. It's unbelievable. No matter what you've done, only God will judge you in the end. The bile on here this morning is sickening. Even the most evil killers, I don't agree with the death sentence. Let he without sin cast the first stone.
I was neither here nor there about her. She was a famous host of LI, but the stars, were the rats in a cage being observed for our pleasure.
I just think it's nasty and actually I don't have words for how people have no compassion for the dead over here.

Cory Monteith really upset me, partly because it was a tragic waste of a young life but I think it resonated because I’d not long lost my mum, we used to watch Glee together and had started rewatching from the beginning whilst I was caring for her when she had cancer. So I was sad for him and his loved ones but also because it was a link to my mum I guess.

And Princess Diana, I lost my dad at a similar age to Harry was when Diana died.
Seeing that poor boy walking behind the coffin and the card to ‘mummy’ just about broke me.

I was really sad about Caroline, it’s not floored me in quite the same way but I do keep thinking about it. Same age as me, and I really loved her on Strictly and was impressed by how talented she was as a dancer.

The British public have stoned her to death metaphorically. Yet, they're the first to condemn stoning in the Middle East. Take a look at yourselves. Seriously.

Have any of you read her boyfriend's statement? It's heartbreaking. Would any of you have left her alone though? Did she have no other option?

12minutespast
She did have someone with her
They’d popped out for a while and she took her chance

There was a lot of public grief for Peaches Geldof until her inquest was held and her drug addiction became apparent. Then everyone was completely nauseated at the thought of a young mother using drugs while in sole charge of one of her kids.................. and a lot of the celebs mentioned on this thread died in similar circumstances.

I have a similar feeling with Caroline that her mental health will be directly linked to some kind of substance abuse/addiction. I feel so sad for her family who are now left with picking up the pieces of her disfunctional life and a huge amount of public interest.

I strongly think that a mental health section was a missed opportunity to save her last year. She may now have peace but her family never will.

I spoke on one of the other threads about a friend of mine who is going through an investigation - he has admitted what he has done to both the police and to me. Some days, he's really down. Is it my job to kick him while he's down? No. What he did was pretty bad. But I can't see someone injured and then kick them in the head.
He'll face judgment by a court and ultimately judgment by God.

I am no saint.

I think a few on MN could do with going to church once in a while.

Perhaps I'm weird but I don't get upset about celebrity deaths. I think 'oh what a shame' and move on.

I suppose it's about who you identify and empathise with.

I do remember being upset about a girl my daughters age and in her friendship group who committed suicide - though I didn't know her personally. She was the same age and her parents must have been in agony.

I totally agree op. I’m not a love island watcher but saw the headlines and that poor woman was destroyed by the press. Shame on all of them. There’s a petition for a government investigation online which I’ve signed. Such a devastating loss because she was at the top of her game - the fall from grace was so sudden and so steep, only the strongest person could survive that. She (as we all do) had demons and devastatingly they played out far too publicly.

I don't give a toss about celebrities. I have no interest in pop culture, and I do not idolise people nor view them as icons just because of how known they are. Celebrity deaths don't have an effect on me at all. I get way more upset to hear about random people being murdered and people dying of diseases and wars.

I meant by leaving her alone as in, to stop attacking her still. She's dead!

I didn't know about a friend popping out.

Keith Flint, same age as me and loved The Prodigy

@ArtemisOfOrtygia, I am with you. I had to google who she was yesterday, never featured on my radar. Some of the things I read did raise eyebrows though. But my life remains unaffected by this, other than to be sad for her family. There are far, far worse things happening globally of greater concern.

The video of Peaches Geldof versus Katie Hopkins is a good example about the degree to which famous people are prepared to put themselves under scrutiny and being poked and prodded. You could tell from the video that Peaches became increasingly stressed and on the defensive at the prospect of Katie Hopkins doing what Katie Hopkins does (trolling, judgemental bitchery), but still she went in the program to be vilified by KH. Why do that to yourself? Being a celeb means you are allowing yourself to be put under the spotlight 24/7, that's the life you buy in to.

CF ended up being under massive pressure of scrutiny and judgement, notwithstanding the pending court case. She didn't seem a tough or robust enough character to have the resilience to deal with it, yet she lived on Twitter. It begs the question what did she expect?

It is horribly sad.
For me the most affecting were River Phoenix, who I LOVED (my first real sleb crush!) –a beautiful principled young man. I remember hearing his brother's heartbreaking 911 call being played.

And Heath Ledger. Such a terrible waste.

More recently, Bowie, who I hope 'died well', if you can, but who is a huge huge loss.

I felt really sad watching Peaches on the video. She was an articulate, intelligent and lovely young mother - such a tragic loss to her two young babies to lose their mother at such a young age.

Being famous invariably means a miserable life full of pressure and complexity. It isn't the fantastic, glamorous life that's painted on social media.

This is the problem with fame. As a celebrity you are reliant on the media to make you famous in the first place, but that media attention can change from positive to negative in an instant.

I can’t help but think that a lot of the negativity aimed at Caroline was because she had dared to carve out her own life - she was an attractive, successful, financially stable woman. She hadn’t had children at the age of 40, so the media decided to destroy her for not behaving as a woman should.