In February 2010, the fashion and celebrity world was stunned when beloved fashion designer Alexander “Lee” McQueen took his own life. He had suffered tremendous personal loss at that time – several years earlier, one of his closest friends, Isabella Blow, committed suicide. And just nine days before Lee hanged himself, his mother had passed away. It seemed like the only things keeping him tethered to the world were his beloved dogs (in fact, his suicide note was basically a plea for someone to take care of his dogs). And that was the story for the most part – a troubled, passionate and brilliant man faces tremendous loss and depression and commits suicide. But now a source claims there might have been more to Lee’s state of mind:
Alexander McQueen admitted he was HIV positive before he killed himself in 2010. The Post’s Maureen Callahan reports in her new book, “Champagne Supernovas,” that McQueen made the admission to friend Chris Bird at a party a few years before his death.
According to the new book, here’s how Bird responded to McQueen: “I just sort of said to him, ‘Well, that was bloody stupid, wasn’t it?’ And he just said, ‘Yeah.’ ”
It was rumored his HIV status was one of the factors that drove the designer to commit suicide, along with drug use and depression. Callahan will give a reading of the book at the Strand bookstore in Union Square on Tuesday evening.
Someone tells you that they’re HIV positive and you’re reaction is “Well, that was bloody stupid, wasn’t it?” Yeah, Chris Bird sounds like an a—hole. But if Lee was HIV positive… okay. HIV isn’t a death sentence in the first world these days. With the right antiretroviral drug cocktail, HIV can be managed and you can live a healthy, productive life. If he was HIV positive, I could see how that would contribute to his depression but it’s not like the old days of HIV/AIDS where he would have only had a short time left. He had YEARS and DECADES left.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He was a true talent and one of the most interesting designer of the last decade.
he was an exceptional artist.
Artists are often depressed, just like writers and poets.
Sadly it’s a rumor since some years ….even before his death
The rumour was that he was HIV positive for a long time and didn’t know it or knew it and gave a lot guys HIV and the guilt of knowing that he gave so many people HIV drove him to suicide. It was a blind item many years ago. So sad. Wrap it up people!
I don’t believe it and I do not believe he committed suicide because of it.
McQueen was an intelligent man who would have understood HIV is not a death sentence.
He had a lifelong history of depression and his mother’s death was unbearable for him. Why must there be more added to an already tragic suicide just to sell books. We have no verification of his health status and even if he was HIV positive, so what? He is dead. Nothing changes that and putting it in print 4 yrs later is solely to sell books and it’s tacky.
Exactly, I tend to agree.
Exactly. It’s a tacky attention grab that adds nothing to the memory of Alexander McQueen’s talent, artistry, and brilliance.
Yes he was a true talent. Let him RIP
So true…let him rest in peace.
ITA. Tacky to the point of no return.
Suicide is very complicated. We will never know what though processes other people have (sane or not so sane).
That said, whether it’s believable or not I think it’s possible that the HIV was the last straw. Depression isn’t know for being rational so when you deal with a lot of things and you know you’re HIV positive, then I can believe it adds to the already existing and continuing misery.
It is no ones business at this point, to know if he was HIV positive or not, nor is it necessary to drag up rumors that have no basis in fact to sell books. Period.
Yet you dedicated 3 paragraphs on this thread and made up your own mind as to why a stranger decided to take his own life and how his thought processes worked. I wrote about the possibility (note that this means I am not talking from a position of personal insight) that HIV might impacted on his depression too, IF he was HIV positive.
I just gave my 2 cents like many people here, including you.
We’re all entitled to take up as much or as little space to express our thoughts.
Artemis
I can get long winded to express my opinions while another can say the same thing in 2 sentences.
Outside of that I agree with you.
I know I dislike it when people point out the volume of my comments like i’m limited to a lesser number. The “3 paragraphs” just irked me a bit.
@FLORC
Lol, I can be very long winded too 😉
It wasn’t really meant as snark but I guess it came across as such. It was to point out how it seems like we’re not entitled to say anything when the poster had things to say herself.
Thanks Artemis for clarifying.
The 1 part just struck a cord with me.
That’s the thing about the internet. Unlimited opinions and little filter.
The rumors of this were around before his death. So, I tend to believe it. I think it contributed to his depression, but the death of his mother (whom he adored) was too much for him.
And while HIV is not a death sentence. Especially in a 1st world country with loads of money, it is a huge impact in your life. Relationships become difficult and you are viewed differently. The stigma that even limited contact can still result in contracting is very much alive. That’s terrible.
Regarding let him rest in peace. He is. This is not disturbing him. And he should be remembered and talked about. He was true brilliance! His life and who he was should never be forgotten and ignored. Like Van Gogh. We analyze the life and mind of a brilliant person who gave the world interesting and wonderful contributions. We discuss the good and the bad to remember the person as they were and not an edited, glorified memory of someone who never actually existed.
Sorry to rant so much. I just think it’s silly to say let the dead rest. It’s as good as saying we should forget them imo. Especially here. No one is trashing him. Just analyzing and remembering.
for some people sex is very important,whats life if you cannot have a lover??? HIV means forever alone.also HIV causes brain damage itself,which is not well understood
He killed himself because of the deaths of Isabella and his mom. He was a genius, mad, but a genius.
He killed himself because he suffered from depression, not just because he lost loved ones. If it were that simple a lot more of us would be dead.
I agree. People should stop trying to rationalize what is an inherently irrational act. No one knows what he was thinking or why he decided that day that he just couldn’t bear the pain, and it’s silly to pretend we do. We will never know.
What I meant was he didn’t kill himself because he was HIV positive. Ofcourse he was depressed. I’ve been there.
His death was such a tragedy. And his label has never been the same.
The same maybe not but it’s still decent.
If that’s true, how sad. He was a gifted designer and one of the reasons I love the British fashion industry.
It’s a shame this woman is using this story to drum up publicity for her book. If the story is true and he’d wanted everyone to know he had HIV I’m sure he would have been able to talk about it himself, but he may have not wanted anyone to know. It’s not for her to tell everyone about it.
It’s true, AIDS can now be managed and a person can live a normal healthy life. Why does anyone commit suicide? I think when someone is in such pain and in their own personal hell, they don’t have a perspective that, this too shall pass. It’s absolutely gut wrenching to be in that situation. When I hear people say,” their just being selfish. ” I cringe, because people assume that a depressed person has that insight, when in actuality they’re in such pain. I guess what I’m trying to get at is this; a depressed person doesn’t have that ability to think long term when they’re in such a dark place, they just want to escape the pain, and they feel that suicide is the only option.
Best quote I’ve ever seen about suicide is from David Foster Wallace.
“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”
Wow, Kali, that was really powerful.
As someone who has suffered a lifetime of depression, that has to be one of the most powerful, accurate statements I have ever read.
“It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames.”
This is a great quote, thanks for posting it.
I want to tattoo this on my body. This is wonderful!
Much as I adored DFW, and find the comment very interesting, it’s worth remembering that there are what we might call ‘low-key’ depressed people all around us too. For many, the promise of suicide at some future date helps them get through more time only half-willingly alive. For them, it’s not irrational at all.
Regarding McQueen, god love him, I ‘read’ it at the time as a broken heart, a pain he was unwilling to prolong, quite simply.
(There was a very interesting article in thr current Private Eye about suicide: how media reporting guidelines drawn up by the Samaritans are routinely ignored by sensationalist coverage such as we saw re Robin Williams. One point leapt to my eye: cease using “commit suicide”. It carries still a weight of criminality, or at least of wrongdoing and censure.)
how horrible of a choice to be made.
That is the most powerful quote I’ve ever read on suicide. I must cut and paste that. We’ve lost a loved one to suicide. He was in his 20’s and it was 30 years ago…..but it will always hurt. It helps to read something meaningful on the subject.
Well said. Having suffered from depression for years, I understand exactly what you wrote.
Exactly, aims, exactly…
Thank you, Aims !
I am the AIDS generation. I remember the death sentence it was and the absolute stigma to have it.
I’ve watched the positive change in societal attitude and strides in available medication, not to mention prevention that i’m not appalled that his friend *was* that dismissive (allegedly) to his admission (alleged).
it’s hard to see this as a contributing factor to his long term depression and suicidal tendencies. It’s come out since his death that he had tried to kill himself several times and may have nearly OD’d on several occasions.
What really tipped him over the edge seems to have been his mother’s death which hit him very, very hard. She was always around to pull him back from the edge.
He was sad etc about Isabella, but his mother was the key, and once that was lost, so was he.
LAK
Very well said.
I visited the AIDS memorial for a charity sport event in Golden Gate Park. The speakers there lived in neighborhoods that were almost completely wiped out. Maybe 98% of a town’s popluation died from HIV or AIDS at it’s worst. To admit it was to live in solitude like a leper.
I’m not of that generation and still wouldn’t have a decent grasp on how horrible it was if I didn’t hear those speakers. It’s 1 thing to read about it.
And is it just me or are so many artistic and creative people in human history plagued by depression? Or am I just catagorizing because of how they died?
I honestly felt this is why he committed suicide, only because some people handle the news differently.
My uncle did the same thing, he kept saying no one sees the ugly side and how he has watched his friends suffer… after there are no more meds that work for them. He explained to me that anti viral meds are not a one size fits all. He was having a very hard time with it and he decided to end his life.
I miss him and have fought being mad at him for leaving us–but then I try to respect his wishes…its hard for the families too, any way it goes.
It is very shocking and troublesome that so many people think that having HIV still allows you to have a ” healthy life”. No wonder the number of people infected have increased…
This… It allows you to live longer, but you’re still dying from it… Not healthy, taking pills on a daily base, a simple cold can kill you, that’s not living a normal life, since when having to take medication for life is a healthy life??? ….
In Chris Bird’s defence – Saying something like that is a very English thing to do, joshing with someone about something so serious – I doubt he meant it nastily (although of course I’m speculating). I’m just saying seeing it written down isn’t necessarily how it played out. It’s kind of a shock reaction to something. Seen it so many times.
Exactly, many non-bits/irish just don’t understand understatement.
Poor Lee, having this shit dragged up years later to sell someone’s book.
Sad to hear he had HIV. I saw a documentary on HIV, and even the meds aren’t as bad anymore and keep your HIV status and symptoms very stable, not going into full-blown AIDS. It’s not a death sentence anymore. It seems like it was a culmination of events in his life that led to it and his depression, not any one thing.
What a blow when he died. I loved the Spanish wedding gown designer Manuel Mota, and he committed suicide earlier this year. He was creative director for Pronovias also, and in his suicide letter cited business pressures and specified he wanted no one from Pronovias to attend his funeral. L’Wren Scott, someone who was well-respected and trying to build her struggling label, committed suicide. Both were just this year.
I think the high-pressure world of design and fashion and staying on top or trying to get there wears designers down, and maybe creative personalities have a more fragile and darker side to begin with, more prone to severe depression. I don’t know.
But Alexander McQueen was such a talented designer.
His friend’s response was very British male. And a British male knows where it’s coming from so it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s not like it was followed by a shunning.
I was a caregiver for a family member with HIV. Her slow death was the single most traumatic event in my life. You literally deteriorate, your mind and body. Sure you can take the medication, but it has a slew of side effects and then there’s the constant reminder everyday that you “ruined” your life. The guilt and shame was very difficult to handle. HIV is not a death sentence, but it’s certainly a life sentence.
A person’s status is no one’s business except his/hers and any partners.
Many many many gay men are HIV positive. I hardly doubt it was the tipping point for McQueen. And it is not something that makes relationships difficult to come by. It is not a death sentence. And yes, you can live for a long time.
“It’s true, AIDS can now be managed and a person can live a normal healthy life.”
I’m sorry, but the part of this sentence about “a normal healthy life” is, sadly, just not true.