Yesterday, the world learned the sad news that former 16 & Pregnant star Valerie Fairman had passed away at the age of 23.
Details were slow to emerge, but we eventually learned that Fairman died of an overdose.
Her struggle with substance abuse was chronicled during her brief period of MTV stardom, and Valerie struggled mightily to get sober over the years.
Unfortunately, in the end, she succumbed to the opioid abuse epidemic that’s already affected so many millions of Americans.
In the wake of her death, thousands expressed their condolences on social media, including several of Fairman’s former colleagues in the 16 & Pregnant/Teen Mom franchise.
Now, those closest to the troubled mother of one are opening up their loss and a life cut tragically short.
“I wish that I could have done more for her, that’s basically how I feel,” Valerie’s ex-boyfriend David Pryce tells Us Weekly.
“She was trying so hard. It’s a lifelong problem.”
Pryce says Fairman was badly misunderstood, not only by fans, but by those who thought they knew her best.
“All I have to say about Valerie is people don’t know how she really was,” Pryce added.
“She was very loving. She was very insecure. She always wanted to go places with me and just kind of hang out. Always wanted to be near me. She was a very, very good woman.
“She would just talk. She was very, very intelligent, which surprised me that she would end up like that.”
Pryce and Fairman dated for nine months in 2013, and the father of her 7-year-old daughter, Navaeh, is Pryce’s nephew.
Pryce paid tribute to Fairman on Facebook after learning of her death, but he also angrily called for something to be done about the worsening opioid problem in America:
“I will always miss you Valerie and I am want to tell anyone who is selling s–t to people to stop,” he wrote.
“We have lost too many loved ones to what you are doing and I am going to start taking care of it.”
Fairman was arrested twice in the past two years for crimes related to her addiction, but her family says that in the final weeks of her life, they had reason to be hopeful that she had turned things around.
