Willpower ‘kept pop icon alive’
DAVID Bowie’s willpower kept him alive long enough to “stage manage” his own death before he consciously “let go,” a forensics expert believes.
The music legend clung on long enough to see the opening of a Broadway musical and the release of an album, Blackstar, before he died of cancer in 2016.
Leading pathologist Dr Michael Hunter shot down conspiracy theorists in a new TV show, concluding there is no medical mystery behind his passing.
Bowie was cremated within hours of his death, two days after his 69th birthday. His ashes were scattered in Bali, Indonesia, as he had requested.
After examining the Ziggy Stardust singer’s health records since childhood, Dr Hunter believes there is no reason to suspect the cause of his death was anything other than the liver cancer he kept secret from fans.
He said Bowie’s sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll lifestyle played little or no part and dismissed suggestions that he may have died as the result of assisted suicide.
Dr Hunter said: “There’s no evidence he wanted to cut short his life. I can see, however, that in Blackstar, Bowie was able to confront his approaching death and deal with it creatively.”
His findings are presented in the documentary series Autopsy: The Last Hours of…. It’s on in the US tonight and will be broadcast soon in the UK.