HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - Perhaps there was one heartbreak too many for Mindy McCready.
The former country star apparently took her own life on Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, Ark. Authorities say McCready died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot to the head and an autopsy is planned. She was 37, and left behind two young sons.
McCready had attempted suicide at least three times since 2005 as she
struggled to cope amid a series of tumultuous public events that marked
much of her adult life.
Speaking to The Associated Press in 2010, McCready smiled wryly while talking about the string of issues she'd dealt with over the last half-decade.
"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said of her
life. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just
always been like that. My entire life things have been attracted to me
and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos
myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge,
giant personality."
This time it seems the whirlwind overwhelmed McCready.
Her death comes a month after that of David Wilson,
her longtime boyfriend and the father of her youngest son. He is
believed to have shot himself on the same porch of the home they shared
in Heber Springs, a small vacation community about 65 miles north of
Little Rock. His death also was investigated as a suicide.
It was the most difficult moment in a life full of them. McCready
issued a statement last month lamenting his death. And she called him
her soul mate and a caregiver to her sons in an interview with NBC's
"Today" show.
"I just keep telling myself that
the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have,"
she said, according to a transcript of the interview.
Like so many times before, McCready showed a little toughness in the
midst of a personal storm, again endearing herself to her fans. But as
usual, the brave face for the camera hid a much more complicated
internal struggle that surfaced publicly time and again over the last 10
years.
This time, along with her remembrances of finding Wilson as he lay
dying, she also answered questions about whether they'd argued earlier
that evening about an affair and if she'd shot him.
"Oh, my God," the "Today" transcript reads. "No. Oh, my God. No. He was my life. We were each other's life."
It's unclear what circumstances led to McCready taking her own life,
but it appears she was struggling again with twin issues that have
persisted for years — substance abuse and the custody of her children.
She checked into court-ordered rehab and gave her children up to foster
care earlier this month after her father asked a judge to intervene,
saying she'd stopped taking care of herself and her sons and was abusing
alcohol and prescription drugs.
It's unclear why McCready was out of rehab.
A publicist for Billy McKnight, McCready's former boyfriend and the
father of her oldest son, said the children remain in foster care.
Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy Webb could not
confirm their whereabouts, citing agency rules.
McCready's relationship
with McKnight was one of the more difficult periods of her life.
McKnight was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted murder after
authorities say he beat and choked her. And the two continued to
struggle over their son with McKnight recently filing for custody in
light of McCready's latest sting in rehab.
McKnight was unavailable for comment Monday morning.
McCready made headlines in April 2008 when she claimed a longtime relationship
with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said
she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was
28 and married. Clemens has denied the relationship.
On Monday, Clemens handed a written statement to reporters at the
Houston Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., where he is
serving as a special instructor for the team.
"Yes, that is sad news. I had heard over time that she was trying to
get peace and direction in her life. The few times that I had met her
and her manager/agent they were extremely nice."
McCready also was engaged to actor Dean Cain in 1997, but their relationship fell apart as well.
Her troubles weren't just romantic. Over time she was arrested for
fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs, probation violation,
misdemeanor assault of her mother Gayle Inge and other problems.
In 2010, after a stint on Dr. Drew Pinsky's
"Celebrity Rehab 3" where she was treated for "love addiction," she
told The Associated Press she may have finally found love and the
strength to get her life back on track.
Pinsky, whose publicist did not immediately respond to messages
asking for comment, called McCready an "angel" in the season finale and
expressed hope she would continue to seek treatment in a later
interview. McCready suffered a seizure in one of the show's scarier
moments. Tests showed she had suffered brain damage, something she
attributed to her abuse at the hands of McKnight.
McCready is the fifth celebrity to pass away since appearing on
Pinsky's show and the third from Season 3. Alice in Chains bassist Mike
Starr and "Real World" participant Joey Kovar both died of overdoses.
She entered her relationship
with Wilson, a producer and musician who was 34 when he died last
month, a short time later. She'd just met Wilson and talked openly about
their relationship in the 2010 interview. Wilson declined to speak on the record.
With a publicist, reporters, cameras, makeup artists and musicians
swirling around her during a press day for her last album, "I'm Still
Here," McCready fended off questions about a sex tape and said she and
Wilson started out as friends.
"And I've never had a
relationship like that before where we started completely as friends,"
she said. "It turned into friends really caring about each other and
then it turned into love and I've never had that happen before."
Things didn't remain calm for long, though. Unhappy with custody
arrangements, McCready took her older son from her mother, the boy's
legal guardian, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission
over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found
McCready hiding in a home without permission and took the boy into
custody.
She and Wilson had their son in April 2012.
