Billy McKnight, Mindy McCready’s ex, says what a lot of folks are probably, tragically thinking – that he’s not really surprised she committed suicide.
“As sad as it is, it didn’t come as a major shock,” McKnight told the Today show Monday in the aftermath of Sunday’s Mindy McCready death.
“She’s just been battling demons for so long,” he added. “I was around her when she attempted suicide twice, so I knew that this was in her.”
Cleburne County, Ark., sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of gunshots Sunday and discovered McCready dead of an apparent suicide.
The troubled country singer and mother of two was found dead on the front porch of her Heber Springs house. She was only 37 years old.
Neighbors reportedly had heard two shots, and the deputies found dead both McCready’s dog and the singer herself deceased at the scene.
McCready had struggled with myriad substance abuse issues for years.
“The demons that she hasn’t beaten were there,” Billy McKnight said.
Last month’s death of her fiance David Wilson, which is currently under investigation as either a suicide or a murder, was the latest warning sign.
The courts ordered McCready to be institutionalized.
Asked if she might’ve been released too early, McKnight, who shared a son with Mindy, said he knew she could talk her way out of anything.
“I feel for her mother, her family and especially my son,” said McKnight, whose boy, Zander, was the subject of a bitter, prolonged custody battle.
After Wilson’s death, Zander and his 10-month-old half-brother, Zayne, whose dad was Wilson, were placed in foster care, where they remain.
McKnight said that he wants his son back now.
“He needs to come home,” he said, though all bets are off as far as her younger son is concerned. “I don’t know what is going to happen to Zayne.”
A sad, sad situation all the way around.
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