Today on Good Morning America, Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky made her first appearance on TV since her husband committed suicide last year. She spoke about his addiction, stating that there’s no way he would have killed himself had he not been on prescription drugs. While he’d battled prescription drugs and alcohol in the past, he’d been sober. Vicky says that being prescribed Benzodiazepine, a painkiller, for a shoulder injury got him back into addiction.
“He loved his life. He would never have ever left this world,” Vicky Cornell told Robin Roberts. “Our family was his everything. As soon as he got offstage, he was a dad, he was a regular dad… The brain of someone who has a substance use disorder is different from that of … someone who doesn’t. He relapsed,” she told Good Morning America, adding that during one weeklong period “he took 20-something pills… And in a nine-day period, 33.”
It’s good that GMA gave her a platform to address the dangers of addiction. Rolling Stone says that she also spoke about telling her children about their dad’s death:
“You think addiction is a choice, and it’s not. I think that if there was less stigma around it, more people would speak up,” Vicky told GMA. “My husband was the furthest thing from a rock star junkie. He just wasn’t. He was the best husband, the greatest father. I lost my soulmate and the love of my life.”
To that front, Vicky Cornell has joined the Advisory Board at the Addiction Policy Forum, a national nonprofit focused on improving policies related to supbsance use disorders through a comprehensive response. You can read about the organization’s vision and direction here.
