Chris Cornell’s widow details rocker's relapse in the months before his suicide
Channel: جوووري الملكة
Date: 21/02/2018

Vicky Cornell revealed that Chris Cornell relapsed a year before his death after being prescribed a drug for shoulder pain — and the addiction was behind his decision to take his own life.

The widow of the late Soundgarden frontman told Robin Roberts on “GMA” that Chris Cornell was prescribed a Benzodiazepine to help him sleep after tearing his shoulder, it was only after that she learned it should have not been given to a recovering addict.

Chris Cornell had become sober in 2003 — until just a year before his May 2017 suicide.

“In retrospect, I learned it's not supposed to be given to anybody in recovery. If you have to give it, they have to be closely monitored and should not be given for more than two to three weeks, so he relapsed,” she recalled. “In a seven-day period, he took 20-something pills and in a nine-day period, 33.”

In March, the musician reached out to a colleague in an email, writing “Would love to talk, had relapse.”

She said “there were signs,” and she somewhat blames herself.

“He was off pitch. He forgot words. He walked offstage. Chris Cornell doesn't do those kind of things ... he's not that kind of a rock star,” she explained.

“My husband was the furthest thing from a rock star junkie. He just wasn't,” she told “GMA.” “He was the best husband, the greatest father. I lost my soul mate and the love of my life.”

Vicky Cornell, who shared two children, Toni, 13, and Christopher, 12, with Chris Cornell, said the addiction was the reason he took his own life.
“He wanted to be there for his family, for his children. He loved his life. He would never have ever left this world,” she said. “I don't think that he could make any decisions because of the level of impairment.”

Cornell was also father to 17-year-old Lillian from a previous marriage to Susan Silver.

The night he died, he told his wife Vicky that he “may have taken an extra Ativan or two” — an anxiety medication that he was prescribed.

She immediately called security at the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit where he was staying to check on him. Chris Cornell was discovered dead after having used an exercise band and carabiner to hang himself from the hotel bathroom door.

Vicky Cornell told Roberts that her message was for people to understand that addiction is not a choice, it’s a disease.

“It's in all of our houses. It's in rich, poor, it has no racial boundaries … it does not discriminate,” she said on “GMA.”

“I think that if there were less stigma around it, more people would speak up.”

Cornell was 52 when he died.