Bullies were mostly responsible for the death of Marie Osmond's adopted teenage son, according to the entertainer.
Michael Blosil was 18 when he committed suicide in 2010, and opening up about the tragedy on her show The Talk on Tuesday (01Oct19), Marie explained her son grew tired of his tormentors.
"He was bullied very heavily up until the time he committed suicide...," she said. "I’ve got the texts. I mean they are horrendous and I never took action against it. But, I can tell you, honestly, I believe that that was a big component in him just feeling overwhelmed and that he didn’t fit in.
"I never took action against the three kids (who bullied him). I know who they are."
Blosil jumped to his death from the balcony of his Los Angeles apartment following a long battle with depression.
Marie, who was performing in Las Vegas on the night he died, previously spoke about the darkest day of her life in her book The Key Is Love.
Michael also struggled with multiple drug problems during his youth, and looking back Osmond admitted she should have seen the warning signs he was headed towards destruction: "The week my son passed away, a friend from his drug-taking days decided to pay him a visit, along with some other friends. Michael agreed to go out with them.
"The next morning, Mike told his roommate that he had woken up under a highway overpass. He had no idea how he got there. He said he had not had any alcohol or taken any drugs on his own, but felt that one of the people in the car must have laced what he was drinking with something. Michael never told me of this incident, but two days before he died I heard a change in his voice over the phone and it frightened me. He sounded weary and said that he felt like he had no friends. I know now that my son was masking how deeply depressed he was."
Her candid comments prompted guest The Talk co-host Rumer Willis to also open up about her years as a victim of bullying.
"I got bullied very, very badly in school when I was younger, very badly," she said.
