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

Caroline’s death has really upset me. I felt a real physical reaction to the news yesterday. It’s really awful

Princess Diana, mostly because she was hounded by the press.
George Michael I will always remember him as a very charitable man.
Carrie Fisher because we had tickets to see Star Wars on the day she died and seeing her on the screen sent shivers down my spine.

No, I've never felt like that, not even about famous people whose work I really valued. I think it's part of the excessive and vicarious interest people have in celebrities' lives, and I think it's a really bad thing, for the famous and for society. So many non-famous people die in tragic ways every day. Being famous shouldn't make someone's death more important or sad. I didn't know who Caroline Flack was, but her untimely death is sad, like anyone else's would be.

I came on here and posted pretty much the same as your OP when Mike Taylor from Walk off the Earth passed away. I was more upset by that then when certain members of my own family died. It stirred up quite a few mixed feelings. No solution, or anything constructive to add, but as PP have said, you're not alone in this experience.

Robin Williams and Heath Ledger for me.

@lazylinguist, beautifully put! It is typically British mass hysteria.

There's an interesting take on Peaches Geldof and Paula Yates in a book by Oliver James: 'Not In Your Genes'. Subtitled 'the real reason children are like their parents'.

I’m feeling a bit like that about Caroline Flacks death. I’m probably at the lowest point in my life at the moment and suicide is encroaching on my thoughts more and more, I’m quite impulsive and to read that it happened so quick, her friend nipped out and couldn’t get back in... that scares me. I genuinely think I could be one bit of bad news away from that. I feel terrible sadness for her because I kind of understand how low she felt.
On the plus side I think I am going to be a bit more pro-active at seeking help.

I had a sad reaction to Steve Irwin's death also, it was a real loss to the animal world.

Patrick Swayze for me. I still can't believe he's no longer here.

More recently, Gary Rhodes...eating dinner with his family, unaware that anything was wrong....then suddenly gone! Made me really aware of how fragile life is.

Gary Speed. Still upsets me today 💔

lazylinguist
I don’t think a celebrity death is more important or sad. For me, it is a reminder of time passing and my own mortality. Performers who have added to my youth and life experience have gone, just as my youth has gone.

I don’t compare it to losing a loved one, (both my parents are dead) that is a completely different much more profound experience.

@BabloHoney Yes, that one for me too. Very very close to home

I shared your grief, OP. She was young, beautiful. Seemed so accomplished - taking part in so many things. Winning Strictly. She seemed lovely, bubbly. Yet people don't often show their mental anguish, do they?

Gary Speed's death was very upsetting as well, I remember he had been a guest on some sort of football show a couple of days before, smiling a lot and his wife was in the audience. So tragic.

Never.

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@Ritamills - so sorry you are feeling like this 🙁 please please talk to someone. Ring the Samaritans.

I remember being really shocked by Natasha Richardson's death, such a seemingly small accident, with such devastating consequences.

Her & Liam Neeson just seemed so madly in love & had their eldest son at around the same time I had mine & there was just something about them as a couple that I found really romantic & interesting.

Others that I found shocking were:
Diana
Michael Hutchence
Paula Yates
Heath Ledger
Peaches Geldof

Just looked up what happened to Gary Speed. Right after appearing on the show, he drove straight to his home and took his own life. :(

I think with caroline flack i feel most disturbed by it because its proving how much the media and social media are affecting our whole society. Noone can make a mistake anymore without the whole world openly judging them for it. No wonder mental health problems are increasing. Everyone feels they are constantly being watched and judged. And i am not condoning domestic violence in any way but none of us know for certain what happened with her and her boyfriend.

Ben Elton's tweet last night said it all (particularly the last line) - "Social media has weaponised - nuclearised - the worst part of ourselves, our natural schadenfreude".

I felt the same yesterday .
Wasn’t a fan , don’t watch love island or anything else she had done but I gasped out loud when I read it yesterday while in a pub.
Every one stared at me but I was just really blown away as this whole thing has played out in front of our eyes .. don’t know why it affected me so much buts it’s just tragic .

This is why she should have been sectioned to protect her AND her partner. She was clearly very unstable and a risk to herself and others.

I agree. It would have protected the public from her and her from the public and media.

It's sad that you can have wealth, lots of family and friends and still have the need to take your own life. It does go to show that you don't know exactly what some people are thinking and what demons they have.

@Davincitoad @DelpheDaisy she seems to have smashed up the apartment because of the messages she found on her partner's phone. He now says the assault didn't take place and the blood found was from a cut on her hand. He shouldn't have had any contact with her (court ordered) but put up a SM posts declaring his love, just before her suicide. We don't know if that played a, part or the reaction to it across all media. It seems a complex situation.

A footballer kicked his GF on CTTV in Liverpool City centre. She wanted him charged with assault. There was more went on than just one kick. Yet he walked from court, it wasn't picked up by the media and it didn't interrupt his carrier.

Denis Waterman still had a career, after not only perpetrating DV, but making statements about how women push men to hit them because they argue better.

I could go on. I could bring up the amount of women, who have evidence around DV/rape and are murdered, but the CPS won't take up the case.

Yet the CPS was determined to carry on with this case.

Anyhow, River Phoenix. I have respect for his Brother Joaquin and think between them they would have done a lot more charity work and raised consciousness around issues. I feel a little pang of sadness whenever I watch 'stand by me'.

Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence and then her daughter Peaches, just a complete tragedy.

My first experience of celebrity death was Elvis, the third (after River) John Smith (Leader of the Labour Party) I can still remember my reaction to both.

The British press really needs holding to account. They way they hound and try to destroy people is disgusting. No wonder Meghan Markle got out. She was being groomed as the new hate figure for the press to bully everyday.
RIP Caroline Flack