As we near the one-year anniversary of Chris Cornell"s suicide, the widow of this late musician has spoken out on camera for the first time since this tragedy took place.
In a sit-down with Robin Roberts for Good Morning America, Vicky Cornell opens up about the Soundgarden singer as a husband and a father, while also touching on his drug addiction.
"I know that people say, you know, you can"t blame yourself. And I"m trying not to, but there were signs," Vicky says through tears in the video below.
In the past, Vicky said her husband was not noticeably depressed at the time he took his own life.
But that doesn"t mean she isn"t aware that drug addiction is an illness with no permanent cure.
"People think that addiction is like, "Oh, you were an addict," and people don"t recognize it as a disease," Vicky explains to GMA, adding:
"I was, I feel, guilty of the same thing. You think addiction is a choice, and it"s not."
The late rock star and Vicky got married in 2004.
They share two kids (13-year-old daughter Toni and 12-year-old son Christopher), while Cornell also has a 17-year-old daughter, Lillian, from his previous marriage to Susan Silver.
Cornell was always candid about his substance abuse issues.
But Vicky wants to make it known that this doesn"t mean the artist wasn"t always there for his loved ones.
"My husband was the furthest thing from a rock star junkie. He just wasn"t," she says here.
"He was the best husband, the greatest father. I lost my soul mate and the love of my life."
According to a statement Vicky released to Entertainment Tonight following Cornell"s passing, her husband called her the evening he died and told her he "may have taken an extra Ativan or two."
Cornell had a prescription at the time for this anxiety medication.
He was staying last May at the MGM Grand in Detroit, which is where his body was eventually discovered.
And Vicky is convinced the drug in Chris" system played a key role in his suicide.
"He wanted to be there for his family, for his children. He loved his life. He would never have ever left this world," Vicky told Roberts, adding:
"I don"t think that he could make any decisions because of the level of impairment."
The full interview with Vicky will air on Good Morning America on Wednesday, February 21.
Watch an excerpt below:
