Lauren Bennett, the British singer who featured on LMFAO's 2011 hit "Party Rock Anthem" and later joined the American girl group G.R.L., took her own life, a British coroner has found. She was 36.
In a statement read out by an assistant coroner on Friday at Kent and Medway Coroners' Court, Bennett's husband, the dancer Kenny Wormald, said she had been struggling with severe mental health issues before her death on May 29. He told the court the pair had talked about everything and that there had been no indication she intended to end her life. She left on the morning of her death saying she was going for a walk; when she did not return or respond to calls for several hours, Wormald and her father went looking for her and found her body at a rural location.
Bennett's father, Richard Bennett, said in a statement read to the court that his daughter had lived an "amazing life," signing a record deal at 17 and moving to the United States alone to pursue it. The court heard that pages of farewell notes were later found at her home.
A Diagnosis and a Crisis Months Before
The inquest heard that Bennett had previously been diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause anxiety, mood instability and depression. In January, several months before her death, she went days without sleep and was admitted to hospital under a mental health section, after which she experienced what assistant coroner Jyoti Gill described as "substantial psychological suffering." She was in the care of specialist mental health services at the time of her death, had reacted poorly to medication and did not believe she would get better, the court was told. No alcohol or illicit drugs were found in her system.
G.R.L. announced Bennett's death on Instagram in July, writing that their "hearts are broken" and that they could not express how much she meant to them. Before joining the group, Bennett performed in Paradiso Girls alongside Aria Crescendo, who told the BBC she was "super talented, super beautiful and super funny," adding: "We're so in shock that this happened, honestly."
"Party Rock Anthem," on which Bennett traded verses with LMFAO and GoonRock, spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011 and has been ranked by Billboard as the fifth most successful song of all time on that chart. Its music video, which features Bennett, has drawn more than 2.5 billion views on YouTube.
Readers affected by the issues raised in this story can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by call or text at 988.