Chester Bennington’s Widow: ‘Depression Doesn’t Have a Face or a Mood’
Talinda Bennington, widow of Linkin Park‘s Chester Bennington, tweeted a playful family video on Saturday showing the musician eating jelly beans with his children. She posted the clip, filmed the day before the singer’s suicide, to illustrate how “depression doesn’t have a face or a mood.”
“This is what depression looked like to us just 36 hrs b4 his death,” Talinda wrote in the video caption. “He loved us SO much & we loved him. #f—depression #MakeChesterProud.”
Earlier in September, in another commentary on depression’s elusive nature, Talinda tweeted an intimate family photo captured “days before” her husband’s death at age 41. “Suicidal thoughts were there, but you’d never know,” she wrote along with the image, which shows the Benningtons relaxing near a sunlit beach. “#fuckdepression.”
Last Tuesday, Bennington’s son Draven marked Suicide Prevention Week with a brief YouTube clip. “I want to make a commitment that I will talk to someone before I hurt myself when I’m feeling depressed, sad or going through a hard week, month or year,” he said. “I want to challenge you to do the same – to help yourself, not hurt yourself.”
One week following Chester Bennington‘s suicide in late July, Talinda issued a poignant, grief-stricken statement to Rolling Stone in which she considered how to move forward without her husband of nearly 12 years.
“He was a bright, loving soul with an angel’s voice,” she wrote. “And now he is pain-free singing his songs in all of our hearts. May God bless us all and help us turn to one another when we are in pain. Chester would’ve wanted us to do so. Rest In Peace, my love.”