Marie Osmond Talks to Oprah About Son's Suicide: 'I Knew Something Was Wrong'

By PopEater Staff Posted Nov 11th 2010 04:52PM

Nearly nine months after her son's tragic death by suicide, Marie Osmond is finally opening up about her loss. Osmond's 18-year-old son, Michael Blosil, took his own life by jumping off a Los Angeles apartment building in February. The singer, who adopted Michael with ex-husband Brian Blosil, told Oprah of the tragedy, "I've been through some tough things in my life [but] this is probably the hardest thing I've been through."

Osmond admitted to understanding her son's plight, having suffered from post-partum depression herself. One of their last conversations was telling, she says. "When I heard him say to me 'I have no friends,' it brought back when I went through depression," she said. "Because you really feel so alone."

"I said, 'Mike, I'm going to be there Monday, and it's going to be OK,' but depression doesn't wail til Monday."

Osmond painfully recalled the night that Michael died, starting with a phone call from him just as she was going on stage during her Vegas show. She said that she was going through a costume change when her phone rang. "I couldn't get to it," she admitted. Later when she called him back, he didn't pick up.

"I believe in female intuition. I especially believe in mother's intuition. I knew something was wrong."

She asked her daughter to stay with her that night in the hotel and at 2 AM the phone rang. On the other line was a security guard from her gated community. "[He] said 'there are some people here to see you. It's the police I believe' ... He said, 'well it's the coroner's office.'"

"I knew it was Michael," she said with tears streaming.

According to the police report, the time of death was around 9:30 PM. Osmond told Oprah that he called her about 45 minutes before that. "You know some particulars are so in stone, other things are just like this wave that comes in and out of your heart. I've been through some tough times in my life, Oprah. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever been through."

When asked by Oprah if she thought things would have been different if she had just spoken to Michael when he called, Osmond responded by saying, "I think if you live in 'what ifs,' you stop living."

While many media outlets have reported that Michael's suicide stemmed from the conflict between his Mormon upbringing and his reported homosexuality, Osmond denied these claims. "My son was not gay," she said. "And it wouldn't matter if he was."

She added, "I know I'll see him again because of what I believe."

She told Oprah that Blosil started abusing drugs when he was 12 and took several trips to rehab, however, she disputed any notion that narcotics played a role in his death.

"My son was clean when he jumped," she said of the teen, who was a student at L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. "There were no drugs in his system, but I believe that the ramifications of them were there. That was the hard part."

Blosil left a suicide note, and Osmond did her best to summarize it: "He basically said he knew that morning was the last time he would get up and brush his teeth, make his bed, those kinds of things. He had made his decision, I guess. And uh, [he wrote] that he loved his family ... The pain was so intense."

Osmond also confirmed rumors that her son had attempted suicide while she was competing on 'Dancing With the Stars' in 2007. "During that time I was going through a very public divorce. Going through custody battles ... and he received some news that something had happened to some of his family members ... and he couldn't deal with it. He promised he would never do it again."

Tags: Marie Osmond

Comments

(312)

Friday 12 November

By callie

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Nice to be perfect. Heartless f*ck.

Thursday 11 November

By jiniries

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@MIKE...I agree with Donna LaBarge, you are a HEARTLESS BASTARD!!

By Colleen

Your pain was so very hard to watch, my 29 yr. old grandson killed himself in Sept. Our family is just heartbroken, how can you ever recover from this. I have always admired you and your family, like you said you have to put it in Gods hands but the pain is unbearable.

MARIE...I am so sorry for your loss, God bless you.

By Gracelyn

Dear Marie

My heartfelt sympathy and prayers.

A consoling thought is that Love never dies, and life
is eternal.

By anita

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STOP calling Mike a hearless bastard, you people who do, you are the ones who CAN"T see the reality of this unfortunate death or the ignorance behind it....

By reall

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And you do? You know the reality behind mental illness? You know the whole story of this young man, his family? I certainly don't. As a parent, I've made mistakes even though I love my children. So in the absence of omnipotence or perfection, we can do nothing but offer empathy and sympathy -- not judgment. May you never be judged at your worst hour.

By bbimley

I AM PRONE TO DEPRESSION...PEOPLE IN GENERAL DO NOT UNDERSTAND

SHE SHOULD FEEL NO GUILT.....HE WOULD HAVE FOUND A WAY

REGARDLESS....THIS IS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE,WITH THE MOST

LOVING FAMILY EVER......

By bclosetoit

I couldn't watch this because I know Oprah would ask her something stupid like "how did his suicide make you feel"?

By Jan Meeks

FLASH: Movie star leaves her 18-year old, suicidal son in another state to pursue her show biz career and doesn't even take his phone call the night he kills himself.

CONCLUSION: Narcisstic celebrities are so self-absorbed that they neglect their kids emotionally and make terrible parents.

LEARNING: Parenting takes time and personal involvement. Sometimes career sacrifices have to me made. The child cannot be secondary to the career.

By Maria

Jan, You are so correct. Marie had eight children; about five of them were adopted. While that is a lovely thing to do; if she wanted to make her career her first priority; perhaps she should have made a wiser choice. I really don't know of any mother with eight children who is able to have a career, and put it first, especially in view of the fact that she probably didn't need to work in the first place. I hope she will be able to find some peace.

YOU GOT IT!!!

By ali

By Marina vasquez

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I am sorry to hear Mary sorrows and it must hurt very much, however the denial that her son was gay reflects in the loneliness of her son. The love of a mother should be unconditional. If she suspected her son was gay she should had opened her arms and soul and accepted him as he was. Maybe then he would not have been and felt so alone.

By Daughter survivor of father who died by suicide

Mike you are one of the reasons we have such a stigma about mental health and suicide, you are one of those people that will never ever understand what a Survivor of suicide goes thru I hope you never have to go thru what a suicide survivor has to go thru. Her son was 18, which means he is an adult which makes it hard to weigh was he having a bad moment did he tell her he was ok. Mike life goes on as much as we would like to think we can control what happens we can not. Its been 24 ago when I was just 18 that My Dad after finishing breakfast with my mom on sunday morning (he told my mom he was going to visit his brother with a smile on his face kissed her good by) headed down the steps to our basement layed under our staircase and shot himself in the heart and died. we thought it was a window slamming shut but the smell I was still asleep woke up to that gunshot I walked down those stairs and found him my life changed that day I ask myself everyday if I would have just been a better daughter could I have said something done something anything would he have not killed himself its only been a couple of years that I have realized I couldnt have prevented it but still I ask myself questions WHY no one could have prevented it but the person themselves please dont judge until you have walked in thier shoes its not fair. I am sure you are a great person thank god you have not lived the pain that a survivor has felt. I miss my dad everyday.

By Fred

McDonald you are a shame to your mother and family I hope they don't read your messages. You are so full of jealiously and are mean spirited, Marie found a throw-away child and gave him everything she could most of all she gave him LOVE,something I don't think you know anything about.

By ev

I have a 6 year old boy who is the sun and moon to me, I CANNOT imagine him being in a pain that I could not help him with. How Marie gets up in the morning is amazing to me, because I know that I would not want to wake up in a world without my dear, sweet boy in it.God bless you Marie and in time the wound won't be so ragged, so they say.

By ed baggett

Maybe Marie will forgive herself someday.

By Guy

Very sad...We all have hardship in our lives, we hope someone is there to lend a hand when we need it...

By glapril

Thank you for opening up and sharing your personal insight.

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