Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Michael Bourdain - who was born on June 25th, 1956, in Manhatten, New York City, U.S.A. - was an American celebrity chef, author, and documentarian.  The older of two boys born to Gladys and Pierre Bourdain, he described his childhood as being happy and loving.  Whilst on a family holiday in France in his youth, Bourdain tasted his first oyster on a fisherman's boat, which he credits as stimulating his love of food.  After graduating from high school in 1973, Bourdain enrolled at Vassar College in New York, but dropped out after two years.  His interest in cooking was kindled whilst he worked at several seafood restaurants in Massachusetts during his college years, and he subsequently trained at The Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 1978.  From there, he went on to run several restaurant kitchens in New York City.  Whilst at high school, Bourdain began dating an older girl, Nancy Putkoski, whom he described as "a bad girl" and "part of a druggy crowd"; the pair married in 1985.  Bourdain himself became a regular user of many recreational drugs, from cannabis to heroin.  His first book, a culinary mystery called Bone in the Throat, was published in 1995, but sold poorly, as did the follow-up, Gone Bamboo.  However, subsequent books, all about food as well as his travels around the world, were much more successful.  His 2001 book, A Cook's Tour - written to tie-in with his first television series of the same name - became a bestseller.  Bourdain thereafter hosted many food-themed television programmes, working for the Travel Channel from 2005 to 2013, and for CNN from 2013 to 2018.  He was known for his put-downs of other celebrity chefs, but was quick to praise those he admired.  Smithsonian Magazine described Bourdain as "the original rock star" of the culinary world, and he became known as a "bad boy" of cooking for his frequent use of expletives and sexual references on his No Reservations television show.  After twenty years of marriage, Bourdain divorced from his first wife in 2005, marrying Ottavia Busia in 2007.  Busia bore Bourdain his only child - a daughter named Ariane - that same year.  Previously a heavy smoker, Bourdain gave up cigarettes in 2007 for the benefit of his daughter's health, but started smoking again towards the end of his life.  Although Busia sometimes travelled with Bourdain, and even appeared in a few of his T.V. shows, the strain of Bourdain being away filming 250 days a year put a strain on the relationship, resulting in the couple separating in 2016, after which Bourdain entered into a relationship with Italian actress, Asia Argento.  In 1998, Bourdain became executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles restaurant in Manhatten, but the business went bankrupt in 2017.  In early June of 2018, Bourdain was in Strasbourg, France, filming an episode of his Parts Unknown programme.  On June 8th, his friend Eric Ripert became concerned that Bourdain had missed breakfast and dinner.  Ripert subsequently found Bourdain hanging in his room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kayersberg, near the city of Colmar, from an apparent suicide.  An inquest heard that Bourdain's body contained no traces of narcotics, and his suicide appeared to be an impulsive act.  Anthony Bourdain was 61 years old.

Chris Morgan

Christopher Morgan - who was born on July 29th, 1952, in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. - was a Welsh journalist and television- and radio-presenter. Educated at Cardiff High School, and at Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, he was the oldest of four children born to parents who were both bank cashiers. Following sixth-form, Morgan attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he stood as a Labour Party candidate for the local authority, as well as becoming treasurer of the National Union of Students. After graduating with a Master of Theology degree in 1976, he moved into the media the following year by joining the BBC's Religious department. In 1978, he began training as a journalist at BBC Wales, working as a reporter and presenter on both radio and television, eventually becoming one of the main presenters on the flagship BBC Wales news programme, Wales Today. A committed Anglo-Catholic Christian, Morgan was a close friend of the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and was best man at Williams's wedding in 1981. Moving to London in 1990, Morgan became a reporter for Thames News and TV-AM; whilst also, for seven years between 1990 and 1997, presenting the Radio 4 Sunday-morning programme, Sunday, which focused on religious and moral issues. Morgan was appointed Religious Affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times in 1997, a post he held until his death. From the year 2000, he began contributing to a number of television news programmes on religious affairs, and appeared regularly on BBC News 24, Sky News, and CNN. In 2005, Morgan's mother - to whom he was very close, and whom he telephoned at least three times a day - passed away. Without a wife or children to depend on for support (Morgan never married), he began to become quite depressed, although he seemed to keep much of his sadness to himself, and managed to maintain a facade of competent professionalism. However, by 2007, Morgan began to suffer from bouts of depression, for which he sought psychiatric help, even being sectioned at one point. He became more reclusive, often not returning phone calls or e-mails. In the Spring of 2008, Morgan contributed a couple of articles to The Sunday Times, this return to productivity leading friends to believe he was returning to some measure of good health. Sadly, his recovery was shortlived, as - on the afternoon of Friday, May 30th, 2008 - Morgan's body was found by British Transport Police on the track at Kings Langley railway station in Hertfordshire, having been in collision with a Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston train. His death was ruled a suicide. Chris Morgan was 55 years old.

Huw Weekes

Huw Weekes - who was born on January 22nd, 1957, in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales - was a British journalist and broadcaster.  The son of Philip Weekes, a senior National Coal Board official, Weekes was brought up in Aberdare.  He began his journalistic career at the age of eighteen as a cub reporter on the Weston Mercury weekly newspaper in Weston-Super-Mare in the south-west of England, before joining the Bristol Evening Post.  Weekes's first broadcasting job was as a reporter on BBC Radio Newcastle in 1980.  In 1982, he joined Yorkshire Television as a sub-editor, graduating to a presenter's role on YTV's nightly news magazine, Calendar.  Following another presenting role at Tyne Tees Television, Weekes returned to south Wales in 1988, joining HTV Wales in Cardiff.  He stayed with HTV for thirteen years, becoming a well-loved newsreader on the channel.  He was described by HTV Wales Controller and Programmes Director, Elis Owen, as "...a first-class journalist, an excellent broadcaster, and a good colleague.", and "...one of the cornerstones of the HTV news operation for many years, and was well-known and popular...".  Weekes settled in Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan with his wife, Sue, and his three children: Jennifer, Robert, and Alice.  In September of 2000, Weekes - who was described by a work colleague as "an up-and-down kind of person" - was diagnosed with clinical depression.  On the evening of January 17th, 2001, one of Weekes's work colleagues - fellow newsreader, Tara Eugene - received a phone call from Weekes, saying that he had driven to a remote car-park with a bottle of wine and some sleeping-pills, and was planning to ingest them and freeze to death.  Weekes also said that a car had then pulled-up nearby, which he took as a sign not to go through with his plan.  Miss Eugene later tried to contact Weekes at his flat, without success, before contacting Weekes's sister to inform her of his distress.  His sister got no answer when she called at his Cardiff flat, assuming he had gone to bed, as he had to be in the news studio early the next morning.  Weekes had been due to arrive at work in Cardiff at 5 a.m. on January 18th, as he was scheduled to read the morning news bulletins, but he failed to turn up.  Concerned colleagues called his home, but to no avail.  Later that day, Weekes's dead body was found on Boverton Beach, where he used to play with his children, just two miles from his Llantwit Major home.  An inquest revealed that he had died by drowning after taking an overdose of Temazepam sleeping pills and some alcohol.  There were also rumours that Weekes and his wife had been having marital difficulties.  Huw Weekes was just 43 years old.

Annie St. John

Ann Florence Heywood - who was born on September 8th, 1954, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England - was a British television presenter.  Growing up in Blackpool, Lancashire, she attended Blackpool Collegiate Grammar School for Girls and the Rose Bruford Drama School.  As a young woman, she worked as a mahout (an elephant rider, trainer, or keeper) at the Blackpool Tower Circus, and performed at repertory theatre in Bolton, Salisbury, and at the Young Vic in London.  In 1976, she married the actor, Michael St. John.  Annie first made her name on television in 1978, working as a hostess on the first two series of the networked Yorkshire Television gameshow, 3-2-1, before joining HTV West in 1981 as a newsreader and continuity announcer.  Her popularity in the West-Country was such that viewers launched a Save Our Annie campaign when she left the station in 1983 to join Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle.  During her time at Tyne Tees, St. John continued to freelance for HTV West and also for London Weekend Television.  As well as announcing duties, she presented various regional programmes, including Ask Oscar; a weekly What's On programme; It's Nearly Saturday; and the advice series, Problems.  By the late 1980s, St. John had become one of the main anchors of the nightly regional news programme, HTV News, alongside Bruce Hockin and Richard Wyatt, whilst still pursuing her continuity role.  She also presented a request show for the local independent radio station, Radio West.  In November of 1990, after colleagues became concerned when she failed to turn up for work, HTV director of programming Derek Clark and a staff rigger went to her flat in Baltic Wharf, Bristol, where they found St. John naked and semi-conscious on a bed, clutching a teddy-bear, having taken an overdose of champagne and drugs.  She was able to confirm to an ambulanceman that she had taken 80 tablets from two bottles that were found by her bed.  Apparently, St. John suffered a heart attack shortly after arriving in hospital, which left her in a vegetative condition.  On Monday, December 10th, 1990 - 38 days after taking the overdose - she died in hospital.  St. John's funeral was held at St. Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol, and she was cremated in the city.  Her grave is located at Carleton Cemetery in her hometown of Blackpool.  Survived by her husband of 14 years, Michael, an inquest later recorded a verdict of suicide.  It also transpired that St. John had been having an affair with Nick Kerswell, an HTV journalist, for six months before her death; although, on the evening of her overdose, she had been sharing a drink for forty minutes with her estranged husband.  Her husband later said that she had mentioned having a row with someone, but didn't want to dwell on it, and otherwise she seemed fine.  A briefcase found in her house contained several letters and photographs addressed to Kerswell, which he claimed to have destroyed after reading.  Pathologist Nicholas Rooney attributed St. John's death to bronchial pneumonia caused by a cerebral haemmorhage.  Annie St. John was just 36 years old.

Mark Speight

Mark Warwick Fordham Speight - who was born on August 6th, 1965 - was an English artist and children's television presenter.  Born in Seisdon, Staffordshire, England, he was raised in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands. Speight's father was a property developer, and his mother an art teacher.  Speight stated that he was a slow learner at school, and was bullied, which led to him becoming the class joker.  With ambitions to become a cartoonist, he left school at age 16 to take a degree in commercial and graphic art.  In 1994, Speight became a presenter on the children's art show, SMart, a role in which he continued until 2008.  He also presented the children's game show, See It Saw It, on the set of the which he met his future fiancée, the actress and model, Natasha Collins.  Collins was hit by a car in 2001, causing her to leave See It Saw It, but began dating Speight in 2003, and they got engaged in 2005.  On January 3rd, 2008, Speight awoke, after a night of partying, to find his fiancée's deceased body in the bath of their shared flat in St. John's Wood, north-west London.  Initially a suspect in Collins's murder, Speight was later found to have nothing to do with her demise.  She was ruled to have died from cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water.  After failing to turn up to a meeting with Collins's mother on April 7th, 2008, Speight's body was found hanging from the roof of MacMillan House, adjacent to London's Paddington Station, on April 13th, apparently six days after he had died.  He was 42 years old.

Caroline Flack

Caroline Flack was an English actress, and a radio and television presenter.  Born in Enfield, London, on November 9th, 1979, she moved houses several times in her childhood, and received medical treatment for being "very underweight" whilst at school.  Between 1996 and 1999, she studied dancing and musical theatre at the Bodywork Company in Cambridge.  She began her career as an actress on Bo' Selecta in 2002, before presenting a variety of television shows including I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! NOW!, The Xtra Factor, and The X Factor.  Flack won the twelfth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 with her professional partner, Pasha Kovalev, the couple earning the first perfect 40 mark in the semi-finals, followed by three more in the finals, to earn a previously-unmatched perfect score of 120 points. In her personal life, she dated Prince Harry in 2009, and also had relationships with One Direction member, Harry Styles, and the England international rugby player, Danny Cipriani; she was briefly engaged to reality TV personality Andrew Brady in 2018.  In 2015, Flack came fifth in FHM magazine's 100 Sexiest Women.  On December 13th, 2019, Caroline Flack was charged with assaulting her boyfriend - the tennis player, Lewis Burton - after an incident at her Islington flat the previous morning, in which she apparently hit him in the head with a lamp.  She allegedly confessed to the crime after police arrived, also warning that she would kill herself.  Four days later, she stood down as host of the ITV2 programme, Love Island.  It was later reported that Flack had been having "personal issues", and had been experiencing an emotional breakdown for "a very long time".  She pleaded not guilty to the charges at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on December 23rd, and was bailed on condition she did not contact Burton.  Although her boyfriend did not support the prosecution, Flack was due to stand trial for the offence on March 4th, 2020.  On February 15th, 2020, she was found hanged in her flat in Stoke Newington, London.  On August 6th, 2020, an inquest concluded that she committed suicide following a long struggle with "fluctuating mental health" that was exacerbated by the stress of fame.  Caroline Flack was the fourth person associated with Love Island to kill themselves, including former contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis.  She was 40 years old.