Mel B details attempted suicide with 200 painkillers in new book excerpt
In December 2014, during the live “X Factor” shows, Mel B tried to take her own life by downing 200 painkillers. She blacked out and woke up covered in bruises.
It echoed a previous attempt on her own life aged 14 when she was growing up in Leeds.
She was replaced for the Saturday semi but bravely appeared for the Sunday live final in a dress which showed off her injuries. At the time she blamed a stomach ulcer.
Here, in an exclusive extract from new autobiography Brutally Honest, Mel explains what really happened over those few dramatic days.
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Here I am, 39 years of age, staring in a mirror in the en-suite bathroom of my rented house in Kensington, London, holding an open bottle of aspirin from the stash I’ve stockpiled over the years, putting one pill after another into my mouth.
As each pill goes into my mouth, I ask myself: “Are you sure?” And I take another one. Ten, 20, 50, 100. “Are you sure?”
It’s Thursday night. 11 December 2014. I’ve come back from dinner with my husband Stephen. Tomorrow I’m going to “The X Factor.”
It will be the red-carpet launch for the final weekend. I’ll be wearing a beautiful dress, my hair and make-up will be perfect. But if you want the absolute truth, I don’t care about any of it. My life is a mess and I want out.
One hundred and 20. “Are you sure?” 150. “Are you sure?”
Behind the glitter of fame, I felt emotionally battered, estranged from my family.
I felt ugly and detested by the very man who once promised to love and protect me, my husband and manager Stephen.
A man who after ten years of marriage now had a library of sex tapes that could — as we both well knew — ruin my career and destroy my family.
I wrote frantic, disjointed notes for Phoenix, my eldest daughter, my soulmate — the girl who is little sister, friend and daughter to me.
It was going to be up to her to get my other little girls, Angel and Madison, to Leeds where they could all live with my mum.
In my head, in that moment, it was that simple.
Two hundred. “Now what’s going to happen, Melanie? STOP!” As soon as I’d swallowed that last pill, I knew I didn’t want to go anywhere. “Melanie! What the f— are you doing? Get a grip!”
Suicide was not the answer. I had to make my life count. I had to get to a hospital. I had to get those pills out of my stomach before anything happened.
My head was spinning. All I thought was that I needed to get out of the room but for some reason, the door was jammed.
I can’t clearly remember what happened next but I remember throwing myself at the door, crashing my full weight against it.
Those bruises on my face and shoulder everyone saw at “The X Factor” final three days later — most of them were caused by those moments trapped in that doorway.
I can’t remember the pain but I can still remember the fear, panic and absolute confusion in my head.
Then everything started to go black and I collapsed to my knees. I could feel the life in me starting to drain away.
And then nothing, silence. I lay semi-conscious on the bathroom floor and, with tears streaming down my face, drifting in and out of consciousness, waited to die.
I remember getting to the hospital and calling Simon Cowell. I remember he didn’t sound horrified, just calm, like he knew that’s what I needed from him.
I must have lost consciousness again. When I woke up, I was surrounded by doctors and nurses.
“Mom. What the hell?” Phoenix was standing by my bed. Furious, shaking, full of rage. Of all the memories from all those hours, it is the one that still floors me. “Why, Mum? Why? Why?” It was the saddest moment of my life. All I ever want is for her to know how sorry I am, how lost I was and how I’ll never, ever abandon her again.
Looking at my daughter — distraught, devastated, angry — was the moment I knew the fightback had to start.
The situation with “The X Factor” was quickly sorted because it had to be — the semi-finals were going to be shown live in two days’ time.
Tulisa Contostavlos would cover for me on Saturday night and be on standby for the Sunday final.
Despite all the drugs I was being given, I was wired. The doctors kept telling me that I was in the High Dependency Unit and was seriously ill. I needed to get well.
If you think I was surrounded by friends, relatives, other concerned celebrities and flowers, you would be wrong. Thanks to my relationship with Stephen, I was pretty much on my own apart from my security, my hairdresser and Simon my publicist.
Every one of the Spice Girls tried to contact me. I couldn’t speak to them. I wasn’t ready, and I was too ashamed. My family also managed to track me down, but they were the last people I wanted to see.
I remained trapped behind a wall of guilt, shame and worthlessness. I’d been hit in the past, but bruises fade.
My doctor looked at me as if I was completely crazy when I mentioned in the very early hours of Sunday morning that I would be on “The X Factor” later that day.
“That is not happening, Melanie,” he said.
“I don’t think you realise how serious your condition is. You are in intensive care. There is serious damage to your liver and kidneys.”
As my doctor walked out of the room, I texted my stylist: “Send me pix of all the dresses you’ve got me for the final tonight.”
I had bruises round my eyes, my cheek was swollen, and I had massive dark welts on my arms from the constant stabbing at my weak, narrow veins with the IV drips.
“I’ve got three perfect dresses with sleeves,” said my stylist, nervously eyeing the welts and purple marks on my arms which were clearly showing through thick body foundation. “No,” I said. “I’ve picked the dress already. No sleeves.”
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Jaden Smith reaffirms that Tyler the Creator is his boyfriend: ‘It’s true’
Jaden Smith continues to call Tyler, the Creator his boyfriend.
While promoting his newest project, The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story, on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio on Friday, Jaden addressed his recent love proclamation.
“I recently said that Tyler, the Creator is my boyfriend, and that’s true. So, just so you know,” he said.
Jaden made headlines earlier this week, after appearing to share the relationship news at Camp Flog Gnaw on Sunday night. While praising the rapper on stage, Jaden got real about his feelings for Tyler.
“I just want to say Tyler, the Creator is the best friend in the world and I love him so f**king much,” Jaden said. “And I want tell you guys something. I want to tell you. Tyler doesn’t want to say, but Tyler’s my mother f**king boyfriend, and he’s been my mother f**king boyfriend my whole f**king life. Tyler, the Creator is my f**king boyfriend. It’s true.”
A video of Jaden’s speech panned over to Tyler, who was seen shaking his head and seemingly denying Jaden’s comments. ET has reached out to Jaden’s rep for comment.
Though he briefly mentioned Tyler on Friday, Jaden more openly discussed his past relationship with girlfriend Odessa Aldon.
“I did really f**k up in my relationship with Odessa, and this song is kind of like me being like, ‘Yo, I’m sorry,’ because I am sorry, and I’ve already said sorry to her a million times, but this is me saying sorry to her again,” he said his song, “Fallen Part Two.” “That’s what this song is. It’s kind of sad, high key. I made this in Hawaii, and I was sad.”
Article via Aol
Kanye West donates $150,000 for security guard killed by officer in suburban Chicago
Rapper Kanye West donated $150,000 to a memorial fundraising site for a security guard shot by an officer near his hometown Chicago.
How he was killed
Outrage following the killing
Article via CNN
YouTube is now streaming actual movies you can watch for free
YouTube has had free “movies” for years, most of them ripped from somebody’s DVD copy with a bizarrely cropped video and poorly synced audio (and they even used to be chopped up into 10-minute chunks), but lately the video site has been adding actual legal content that users can buy in order to make it more competitive with services like Amazon Prime. Now, YouTube has reached the next, inevitable stage of any non-Amazon/Netflix/Hulu streaming service: free movies!
Actually, the exclamation point there isn’t really warranted, as the majority of the free movies here aren’t, you know, good. But hey, a free movie is better than a movie you have to pay for (sometimes). The catch, other than some of the movies being bad, is that these free movies are ad-supported, so it’s just like watching an on-demand movie off of a cable box. Deadline notes that this comes after Roku added free, ad-supported movies on its Roku Channel and Walmart’s Vudu service got some free movies of its own. Also, while Deadline doesn’t know exactly how the monetization here works, YouTube says it will eventually be adding a way for advertisers to sponsor individual movies and offer special “screenings.”
But we’ve stalled long enough, and now it’s time to talk about the actual movies you can watch right now. You’ll actually have to go to this link to watch them, but what’s one extra click when it means you can watch Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London for free? Or how about Kevin James in Zookeeper? Or the first Agent Cody Banks? Or Legally Blonde, which is actually a good one? Or Rocky? Or Throw Momma From The Train? Or The Terminator? Or something called Mystery Road? Or a Western starring Josh Peck from Drake And Josh? Or a movie called The Great Buck Howard that has so many famous people in it that it must be good?
Article via AVClub
11th child dies in viral outbreak at New Jersey rehab center
An eleventh child has died after a deadly outbreak of adenovirus at a pediatric rehabilitation center in New Jersey, health officials said.
The state health department was first notified of the viral outbreak at Waneque Rehab Center last month, which has since infected a total of 34 children at the facility.
Earlier this month, state officials said an outbreak would not formally be declared until the facility can go four weeks without a new case of someone being infected. The most recent virus case was confirmed Friday.
“This is an extremely severe strain of adenovirus that couldn’t have occurred in a worse place given the medically fragile patients that live at the Wanaque facility,” said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, commissioner of the NJ Department of Health.
Symptoms of adenovirus usually include sore throats, pneumonia, diarrhea and pink eye.
In the wake of the outbreak, health officials have halted new admissions to the facility until further notice.
Article via ABC7
Cardi B and Offset are tangled up in several legal battles
Call the law firm of Belcalis, Almánzar, Kiari and Cephus.
After receiving an attorney’s statement about yet another lawsuit involving Offset (real name Kiari Cephus), Page Six figures that the Migos rapper and his wife, Cardi B (real name Belcalis Almánzar), are embroiled in no less than seven legal battles.
The latest tussle is between Migos and YRN, a clothing brand that the rap trio owns a chunk of (YRN claims that Migos has started selling its own merch, in violation of an agreement it has with the group; Migos denies it).
But Cardi’s also involved, among others, in a suit filed by her ex-manager, Shaft, who claims that Cardi sidelined him after she got famous, plus Cardi’s own countersuit against Shaft.
Article via PageSix
Man Yelling ‘Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!’ Causes Commotion in Baltimore Theater
A man caused a commotion in a Baltimore theater after yelling “Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!” during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The outburst comes at a time of a dramatic spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States and follows last month’s Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in which a gunman killed 11 worshippers.
“Fiddler on the Roof” is an award-winning musical based on the “Tevye” stories by Sholem Aleichem, about a Jewish family facing persecution in Tsarist Russia.
The incident happened Wednesday night about 10 minutes into the first intermission of the play at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre, audience members told CNN.
The final scene before intermission reminded the man of his hatred for Trump, according to a police report of the incident, and he then stood up to yell “Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!”
Rich Scherr, a contributor for The Baltimore Sun, witnessed the man, who was seated in the upper balcony, shouting the pro-Nazi salute.
“Several people in the audience began running toward the exits,” Scherr told CNN. “I personally thought I was about to hear gunshots.”
Scherr, who later posted a video from the incident on Facebook and Twitter, said the man went on to shout other things before security took him out. The show resumed 10 minutes later.
It is not possible to discern what the man was saying from the video, which shows audience members’ apparently concerned reactions.
Samit Verma, a journalist at Voice of America, was seated in the balcony on the right side of the theater with his wife when he heard the man shouting.
“I initially could not make out what the man was saying, but as more people exited the main theater I could clearly see him making a Hitler salute and yelling ‘Heil Hitler!’ ” Verma told CNN. “Everyone around me appeared quite shaken by the experience, and some people were in tears.”
Another audience member, Heather O’Hare, said everyone was shuffling and getting up to go to the restroom during the intermission when she heard the disturbance.
“People in the front orchestra seats started to turn and look up at the balcony, and someone started shouting back: ‘Go Home, Nazi!’ ” she said.
“We were kind (of) confused and numb about what actually was happening, but several audience members were palpably upset and decided to leave during the intermission break. The entire right half of the row in front of me was gone after Act One.”
‘Many Jewish families … were visibly shaken’
Kasey Chisholm was in the lobby with her father during intermission when the outburst occurred. She saw security swarm in and escort the man out.
“We found out what he had been yelling when we returned to our seats,” she said. “Many Jewish families were around our seats and were visibly shaken.”
Connor Drew was also in the lobby at the time. When he returned to his seat, he said he saw a woman next to him “shaking while on the phone with her son.”
Baltimore police spokeswoman Chakia Fennoy told CNN that officers were called to the theater for a report of a disorderly person. “The suspect left the location without incident,” she said. “No arrest was made. No report was written.”
In a statement released to CNN affiliate WJZ, the Hippodrome Theatre said, “Behavior like we saw during intermission at Wednesday evening’s performance is not, and will not be, tolerated.
“The Hippodrome’s on-site security team, along with our usher staff were able to remedy the situation and remove the offending audience member quickly, coordinating efforts with local police, who met the man as he was escorted out of the building.”
Authorities Release New Photos in Search for ‘Most Wanted’ Tennessee Man Accused of Raping 16-Month-Old Boy
Tennessee authorities released new photos Friday of a fugitive suspected of raping a 16-month-old boy.
The Lawrenceberg Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are hoping the public can help them track down Simon Dean Porter, who is wanted for aggravated rape of a child.
“The suspect in the rape of a young child in Lawrenceburg has been added to our Top Ten Most Wanted list,” the TBI tweeted Friday. “We’re hoping to spread this throughout Tennessee and the surrounding states, so thanks for the RTs!”
Authorities were notified by a local physician who examined the child. The boy has since been taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The bureau published several photos of Porter’s various looks over the past two years.
The suspect’s mother, Barbara Wright, told WKRN her message for Porter:
“Son please bring yourself in. I love you so much son, I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want nothing to happen to you. Do the right thing, you know you didn’t do this, please bring yourself in, prove to them you are innocent.”
Porter is described as 5-foot-9 inches tall and 260 pounds, with red hair and hazel eyes.
He could be driving a green S-10 pick-up with a red tailgate with possible tag number of 3G26Z9.
The Demand Project, a child advocacy group, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are offering up to $3,500 for his arrest.
First-Day Sales for Michelle Obama’s Memoir Topped 725,000 Copies, Becomes One of Year’s Biggest Debuts
First day sales for Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” topped 725,000 copies, making it one of the year’s biggest debuts.
Crown Publishing told The Associated Press on Friday that the figures include sales and pre-orders for the former first lady’s memoir include hardcover, audio and e-books editions for the United States and Canada. “Becoming” was released on Tuesday, the same day Mrs. Obama launched a national book tour . Crown also announced that it had raised the book’s print run from 1.8 million copies to 2.6 million. Reviews of the book, which traces Obama’s journey from Chicago’s South Side to the White House, have been positive, with The Washington Post praising its “impressive balance in telling the truth of her challenges while repeatedly acknowledging her lucky life.”
“Becoming” had the biggest opening of any books in 2018 by Crown’s parent company, Penguin Random House. But at least one other book this year, from Simon & Schuster, did start higher: Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” sold around 900,000 copies after one day.
“Becoming” is well exceeding the pace of previous memoirs by first ladies. In 2003, Hillary Clinton’s “Living History” had first week sales of around 600,000 copies, at a time when audio sales were tiny and e-book sales nonexistent.
Former first lady and author Michelle Obama appears onstage at “Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama” at the Forum on Nov. 15, 2018, in Inglewood, California. (Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
19-year-old dies after trying to get high on spray deodorant
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – A 19-year-old died after inhaling deodorant spray to get high, according to a new case report, and doctors who treated the man in the Netherlands are using the case to highlight the fatal consequences of inhaling chemicals.
Such cases are “very rare,” according to Dr. Kelvin Harvey Kramp of Maasstad Hospital’s intensive care unit in Rotterdam.
Kramp explained that because deaths from deodorant inhalation are not common among the general population, the “consequences aren’t really known,” causing people to continue this dangerous behavior.
The patient, who had a history of psychotic symptoms, had been admitted to a rehabilitation center for cannabis and ketamine abuse and was taking antipsychotic drugs.
During a relapse in July, he placed a towel over his head and inhaled deodorant spray to get high, according to the report, published Thursday in the BMJ. He became hyperactive, jumping up and down, before blood flow stopped suddenly, causing him to go into cardiac arrest and collapse, the report says. He was admitted to the hospital and placed in a medically induced coma when staff failed to revive him.
The “patient did not had enough brain function to sustain life,” Kramp said. Nine days after he was admitted, doctors withdrew care, and the man died.
There are three theories about what caused the cardiac arrest, Kramp said: The inhalant could have oversensitized the patient’s heart, which can make any subsequent stress, like getting caught by a parent, cause cardiac arrest. Also, inhalants decrease the strength of contraction of the heart muscle. Another possibility is that inhalants can cause spasm of the coronary arteries.
The patient’s hyperactivity could mean he was experiencing a “scary hallucination,” Kramp said, adding that if that was the case, the first theory would be applicable.
Solvent abuse is not a new phenomenon, the report points out, and is primarily found in “young and vulnerable people,” according to Kramp.
The group most affected by solvent abuse is 15- to 19-year-olds, studies show. People in rehabilitation centers or prisons are more likely to abuse household products, the report added, meaning there could be a greater risk of cardiac deaths in these environments.
In these insecure environments, people have less access to other substances, and household products are easily available, explained Roz Gittins, director of pharmacy at the British drug charity Addaction, who was not involved in the report.
The toxic chemical butane, often used in sprayable household products, has a similar effect to alcohol, Kramp said. “The intention of abusers is to experience feelings of euphoria and disinhibition.”
Other health effects of inhalants include liver and kidney damage, hearing loss, delayed behavioral development and brain damage.
Chemicals like butane have a very quick and short-acting effect, which can make people take more, Gittins said.
The report’s authors hope increased awareness will help reduce further inhalant-related deaths, through education in schools around the fatal consequences of solvent abuse.
“To stop the abuse, we can only try to increase awareness about the possible dramatic consequences of inhalant abuse among youngsters, parents, medical personnel,” Kramp said.
Up to 125 deaths are caused by inhalant abuse every year in the United States, according to the report.
Stephen Ream, director of UK-based charity Re-solv, said that in 2016, “there were 64 deaths associated with these products,” with butane gas accounting for at least a third of those.
“The breakdown by product is more difficult to establish, but we would suspect that about four or five deaths a year are associated with aerosol products,” he said.
“Solvent abuse is also more of a problem in the northern regions of the UK, with rates particularly higher in Scotland and the North East of England.”
According UK drug advice organization Talk to Frank, more 10- to 15-year-olds were killed from abusing glues, gases and aerosols than from illegal drugs combined between 2000 and 2008.
via: https://pix11.com/2018/11/16/19-year-old-dies-after-trying-to-get-high-on-spray-deodorant/