Carrie Fisher's death attributed to drug use plus 'sleep apnea and other causes'

(Image credit: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)

published 17 June 2017

The cause of Carrie Fisher's death "has been ruled undetermined," said a report from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office on Friday, but "sleep apnea and other causes" were involved. The coroner's report mentioned the Star Wars actress' history of atherosclerotic heart disease and that she had ingested multiple drugs at the time of her death.

"My mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life. She ultimately died of it," said a statement from Fisher's daughter, actress Billie Lourd. "She was purposefully open in all of her work about the social stigmas surrounding these diseases. She talked about the shame that torments people and their families confronted by these diseases. I know my Mom, she’d want her death to encourage people to be open about their struggles."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.