Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, also known as “Dooce,” died Tuesday of an apparent suicide, her boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, confirmed to the Associated Press. She was 47.
The former senate candidate told the news outlet that he found his girlfriend dead at their Salt Lake City home.
Ashdown claimed Armstrong had substance abuse issues and had recently relapsed after being sober for 18 months.
The former politician also tells Pvnew in a statement that his late girlfriend was “a brilliant, funny, compassionate writer who struggled with mental-health and alcoholism.”
“She saved many lives through her authorship on depression, but in the end could not save herself,” Ashdown continues.
“She was a loving companion and mother who was always open for a new adventure or concert. Heather believed that ending her life was wrong, but in the end, her judgment was clouded by alcohol. She was loved by many and will be deeply missed.”
A Salt Lake City Police spokesperson also confirms to us that Armstrong was found “unresponsive” at her home around 9:20 p.m. local time Tuesday.
Preliminary investigations show she died by suicide but no further information is being released out of “respect” to her family and their “privacy,” according to the police rep.
A post on Armstrong’s Instagram account, seemingly written by Ashdown, commemorated her passing and said she was the “love of [his] life.”
“It takes an ocean not to break,” the caption also read before adding, “Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else.”
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Armstrong ran the popular parenting blog “Dooce” since 2001 and had amassed a following of at least 48,000 people on social media. She also made several TV appearances, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Her last post on her site was dated April 6 and called “You’re the one I wanted to find.” In the lengthy essay, she spoke candidly about her addiction issues.
“On October 8th, 2021 I celebrated six months of sobriety by myself on the floor next to my bed feeling as if I were a wounded animal who wanted to be left alone to die,” Armstrong shared.
“There was no one in my life who could possibly comprehend how symbolic a victory it was for me, albeit it one fraught with tears and sobbing so violent that at one point I thought my body would split in two.
“The grief submerged me in tidal waves of pain. For a few hours I found it hard to breathe.”
Armstrong also wrote that she “chose loneliness” and to isolate herself because of “how bad” she felt about herself.
She then reflected, “Sobriety was not some mystery I had to solve. It was simply looking at all my wounds and learning how to live with them.”
Armstrong previously opened up about her battle with depression in a May 2019 interview with Vox, revealing she began to struggle following the end of her marriage to her ex-husband Jon Armstrong, with whom she shared daughters Leta Elise and Marlo Iris.
The blogger explained that, two years prior, she enrolled herself in a clinical trial that put her in a chemically induced coma for 15 minutes at a time for 10 sessions.
The treatment was meant to approximate brain death as a possible cure for depression.
“I was feeling like life was not meant to be lived,” Heather previously admitted.
“When you are that desperate, you will try anything. I thought my kids deserved to have a happy, healthy mother, and I needed to know that I had tried all options to be that for them.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
