A little over a month after her unexpected passing, Anne Burrell‘s death has been ruled a suicide.
The New York City medical examiner’s office has determined that the 55-year-old Food Network star’s cause of death was from “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of diphenhydramine, ethanol, cetirizine, and amphetamine,” according to People.
As Star reported last month, Burrell was “found next to dozens of pills,” per the New York Post and her husband, Stuart Claxton, found her “unresponsive” in the shower of their Brooklyn, New York home. Additionally, a rep for the New York City Fire Department told Page Six that the person who called 911 said Burrell went into “cardiac arrest” and was “DOA [dead on arrival].”
Days after her passing, fellow Food Network star Duff Goldman hinted that the former Worst Cooks in America host had been privately struggling years prior.
“Anne and I became friends in probably 2006,” Goldman wrote in a June 19 Instagram post. “She was going through some stuff and I had heard that she was feeling it, so on a trip to NYC from Baltimore I had made her a cake that said ‘Don’t let the bastards win.’ She never did.”
“We had a complex relationship, and I remember the last conversation we had before our paths drifted was a pretty feisty debate about the merits of catfish,” he recalled. “I believe the words ‘trash fish,’ ‘tastes like mud,’ and ‘cake boy’ were used.”
“Anne and I always had a spirited and somewhat acerbic back and forth,” Goldman continued. “I really never knew why our paths drifted but I always hoped that wherever she was, Anne was doing well and was finding some happiness.”
Goldman explained that about two years ago, he attended an event in New York City where he ran into the former Secrets of a Restaurant Chef host.
“Now, at this point we hadn’t spoken in years, and I won’t go into what we talked about but I will say that that conversation left my heart lifted and full of light, for it truly seemed to me that Anne really had found a measure of happiness and love,” Goldman penned. “Life is tough, and we have to be tough to get through it.”
“Anne was as tough as they come,” he added, “but when you got past the armor there was a depth of compassion and kindness that was absolutely beautiful. My heart sings when I think of the love and tranquility that it seems Anne had found recently.”
Burrell is survived by her husband and his son, Javier, her mother, Marlene, and sister, Jane.
