Vicky Cornell on husband Chris Cornell’s suicide: “He didn’t want to die”
[Photo by: Whitney Newell]
Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, has opened up in an interview with People about the death of her husband and the way she and their children have been coping following his loss. She details that he was “happy, loving, caring and warm” and explains further about her hesitance for ruling his death a suicide.
“He didn’t want to die,” she says. “If he was of sound mind, I know he wouldn’t have done this.”
Read more: Hear Chris Cornell’s vocals isolated from Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”
In the People feature, she details that things did seem off the night he died, but feels as though it has more to do with the imbalance of the prescription medications in his system—“individually or collectively”—and the way they would have altered his mental state than his own decision to take his life.
She further explains that he was prescribed Ativan as a sleep aid last year, and although he was taking the medication, he had recently still “seemed deprived of rest.” After the Detroit show on the evening he passed away, she explains that Chris woke her up by turning their home lights on and off remotely using his smartphone.
“That was a sign something was off,” says his wife. “He was on a rant… I said, ‘You need to tell me what you took,’ and he just got mean. That wasn’t my Chris.”
According to the article, when she called his bodyguard, who informed her that the singer was taking double his Ativan dose. When he went to check on Cornell, he found him in his bathroom, and by the time EMTs arrived, he was already pronounced dead.
She explains that she is speaking out to help raise awareness for those battling addiction.
“Addiction is a disease… That disease can take over you and has full power,” she says.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure other children don’t have to cry like mine have cried.”
The music world is still mourning the loss of Chris Cornell, who died Wednesday, May 17 at the age of 52. Artists from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Linkin Park have paid tribute to the music icon, with Linkin Park's Chester Bennington, who was a close friend and godparent to one of Cornell's children, singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for the mourners at Cornell's funeral.
Watch more: CHRIS CORNELL Tribute
