It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to have one of their children die before they do. Sadly, more than a few celebrities have dealt with this heartbreaking situation. In this video, we’ll be taking a look at several stars whose children passed away in an untimely manner. Our intention isn’t to capitalize on the suffering of others, but instead, we hope that by bringing attention to these tragic deaths, we can not only pay our respects to those unfortunate souls no longer with us but also raise awareness of a cruel reality that quite a few stars have had to deal with. Barbara There isn’t a day that goes by that the I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden doesn’t think about her deceased son, Matthew.
Eden lost her son two decades ago in an accidental drug overdose in 2001. She told People magazine that whenever her son was clean and sober, he was nothing but a beautiful human being inside and out. But when he was using, he was an entirely different person. Eden had tried to get pregnant with her first husband, Michael Ansara, for almost seven years before she finally got the good news she’d been waiting for. The day she realized she was pregnant happen to be the same day she learned that I Dream of Jeannie had been picked up by NBC.
It was such a joyous day, especially since the sitcom went on to become a smash hit running from 1965 to 1970. Sadly, that joy was stripped away when Matthew eventually fell into drug abuse and addiction. Before he passed away, he spent 14 years in and out of rehab facilities before finally losing his battle at age 35 on June 25, 2001. Eden told People there has been nothing worse that she’s had to contend with in her life than losing her child. After his passing, she felt a lot of guilt and anger.
Fortunately, she has arrived at a place of acceptance at this point. While she says one can never fully cope with losing a child, she continues to live her life one day at a time while remembering to count her blessings. Loretta Lynn this country music legend’s eldest son, Jack Benny Lynn, passed away in July of 1984. According to news reports, Jack attempted to cross a river on his family’s property in Tennessee on horseback. Halfway across the raging waters, he fell off the horse and ended up drowning.
Loretta was devastated when she learned of his death. Reportedly, she cried nonstop at Jack’s 45 Minutes funeral. A decade later, Loretta lost her husband of 48 years, Do Little Lynn, to complications related to diabetes. In 2013, her daughter, Betty Sue, died at the age of 64 from emphysema. And three years later, her oldest grandson, Jeffrey Alan, passed away suddenly at 47.
Hey, if you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to give it a like and subscribe to Facts first for more, and stick around for more. Celebrities Who Lost Children Carol Burnett Throughout her decades-spanning career on television. Burnett appeared in over 80 different shows, including Mad About You, Hot in Cleveland, All My Children in Hawaii 50. But what she was most famous for was her series The Carol Burnett Show, which ran on CBS for eleven years between 1967 and 78. From 1963 to 84, she was married to TV producer Joe Hamilton.
The couple had three daughters Carrie, Jodie, and Erin, all of whom went on to have their careers in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, Carol’s Fame and fortune couldn’t protect her family from experiencing tragedy. When her eldest daughter, Carrie, started using drugs at the age of 13, her substance abuse led her down a dark road that saw her making repeated trips to various rehab facilities. Fortunately, she ended up beating her battle with addiction when she was 17. But sadly, that didn’t mean a happy ending for her story.
She was later diagnosed with lung cancer that spread to her brain. She passed away in 2002 after developing pneumonia. Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore could bring a smile to just about anyone’s face whenever she appeared on our TV screens. But behind the scenes, Moore suffered through one of the worst possible tragedies that could befall a mother. In 1980, she found out her only son, Richie Meeker had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 24.
While many people assumed he had committed suicide, Moore always denied that as a possibility. Ritchie was an avid gun collector, and the same year he died, he had already accidentally shot himself one other time, Moore said in her 1995 memoir. After all, she was asleep when she received a phone call from her then estranged husband, Grant Tinker, informing her of the accident. According to Judy Vasquez, Ritchie Meeker’s roommate, he was loading and unloading the gun, and it went off in his hands, Judy told The Washington Post. She believed Meeker must have accidentally pulled the trigger.
All she heard was a big bang before he fell on the bed he was sitting on. Paul Newman On November 20, 1978, Scott Newman, the eldest child of Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman, died at age 28. Scott had accidentally overdosed on narcotics and alcohol in a hotel room in La. Earlier that year, he’d gotten into a motorcycle accident that resulted in him taking painkillers to relieve his pain. When those pills were combined with booze, the result was deadly.
After Scott passed away, Paul founded the Scott Newman Center, which is dedicated to stopping drug abuse by educating the public about its dangers. Scott had two younger sisters, Susan and Stephanie. He had moved to California with his father while he was still trying to make it in Hollywood. Before his death, Scott had developed a pretty unhealthy relationship with alcohol. On multiple occasions, he had been arrested for minor alcohol-related offenses.
On one occasion, he had assaulted an officer after vandalizing a school bus while intoxicated. While he had been living a pretty reckless lifestyle before passing away. He had also followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a full-time actor in the early 70s. Notably, he starred in the 1975 film The Great Waldo Pepper alongside the next actor we’ll be discussing Robert Redford. This 85-year-old Hollywood star has sadly outlived two of his four kids.
He lost his son Scott shortly after he was born in 1954 and 2020. His son James passed away after being diagnosed with liver cancer. When he and his ex-wife, Lola Van Wagon, welcomed their son Scott into the world in September of 1959, they expected him to have a long and happy life, but to their horror, he died of Sudden infant Death syndrome just two months later. Following his death, Robert and Lola held a small, intimate funeral service for him in Utah. They went on to produce three more children Shauna, Amy, and James.
When James passed away, he was only 58. James spent much of his life battling health issues. Before he reached his 20s, he had already had two liver transplants. Taking cues from his father, James likewise got involved in the film industry, although he primarily focused on documentaries that dealt with the topics of health and the environment. Roy Rogers For his work in Westerns, Roy was known as the King of the Cowboys, and his third wife, Dale Evans, was endearingly called the Queen of the west.
While each star had biological children of their own and adopted children from the US, they also adopted children from abroad long before it was trendy to do so. Cheryl Rogers Barnett was the first child Rogers adopted through the organization Hope Cottage. At the time, he was still married to his second wife, Arlene. Three years after adopting little Cheryl, Arlene gave birth to their daughter, Linda Lou, on the day she was supposed to come home from the hospital. Arlene tragically developed a blood clot and died five days later.
In 1944, Roy met his third wife, Dale, while working on the set of the film Cowboy and the Senorita. Three years later, they were wed. In 1950, Dale gave birth to a daughter named Robin. Unfortunately, she had Down Syndrome, and while medical professionals insisted that Roy and Dale have her institutionalized, they refused to do so. But two years after she was born, Robin came down with mumps, which developed into brain fever.
Sadly, she didn’t survive. To cope with the grief of losing her daughter, Dale wrote the book Angel Unaware, the proceeds of which went to the National Association for Retarded Children, which has since been renamed the Ark. Roy Rogers and his wife went on to adopt several more children. In total, Roy had nine kids who called him dad Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson was the reigning King of late night for the decades he was on the air, but he experienced a devastating loss on June 21.
One, nine one when he learned his second son Rick had died in a car accident. Rick was only 39. Carson delivered a heartfelt eulogy during Rick’s funeral. In that speech, the usually private celebrity admitted just how much he was struggling with his son’s death. He referred to the loss as the most challenging moment of his life.
He also shared that when a parent loses a child to death, it forces them to become quite conscious of what’s most important in life. Now it’s time to hear from you. Can you think of other stars who had children die before they did? Let us know in the comments section below.