Months after the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump‘s brother, Mark Vanderpump, passed away at the age of 59 from a reported intentional drug overdose , more details are now coming out about what led to his death.
According to a new report, an inquest into the DJs tragic suicide was heard on Tuesday, October 9, and during the hearing, it was revealed that Mark was going through a number of “life stresses,” including a divorce, financial hardships, and health struggles in his family, when he died. He reportedly passed away after a series of argumentative text messages with his fiancee, Gemma Ramsay.
Gloucestershire Live said the coroner was told Mark and Gemma had been engaging in increasingly “intense” disputes for weeks leading up to his passing. The coroner was also told Mark was in a “low mood” during a meal with his father, Jonathan, on April 29. As Jonathan explained, he and his wife told Mark he was welcome to stay the night with them but instead, Mark ventured home.
The following day, Mark was found comatose on his couch and immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.
Before his death, Jonathan explained, Mark had been “experiencing financial problems” and had attempted to end his life once before.
“Jonathan Vanderpump explained that Gemma, his son’s partner, had been making reports about Mark,” said coroner Katy Skerrett. “This had led to some ongoing issues and he had gone with his son to the police station to provide further information on that.”
After Mark’s first suicide attempt, the brother of the RHOBH cast member received treatment and counseling from mental health experts and was ultimately deemed stable.
“He had referred at that time to circumstances in his life including marriage breakdown, financial pressures, and new relationship issues with his partner, Gemma,” a report said. “His mother had also recently been diagnosed with health problems.”
Text messages exchanged between Mark and Gemma on April 29 were given to the coroner during Tuesday’s inquest.
“In the early hours of April 30 they are arguing via text and essentially it is clear he says goodbye to Gemma,” said the coroner. “No further messages were sent or received until 9.15am on the Monday morning when Gemma attempted to contact him but there was no response.”
“It is clear from the text messages that his difficulties with his new relationship had reached a critical point during the month of April and the arguments between them were getting more intense in nature,” the coroner continued.
According to the coroner, she felt the death was suicide because Mark “was alone, he was not expecting to be disturbed, and from the nature of the texts he was saying goodbye and his unequivocal actions satisfy me that an intention was there and it is suicide.”
Just last month, Lisa’s nephews, Mark’s two sons, came to visit her in the United States ahead of her 58th birthday.
She wrote, “Thank you for bringing light into my life the last ten days #nephews #legacy#brother. Beautiful birthday surprise” under a photo she shared of herself with her nephews.
Photos Credit: Humberto Carreno/startraksphoto.com, Twitter