This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
Heather Armstrong, also known as "Dooce," the title for her influential blog on motherhood, has died. She was 47.
The news was shared on Armstrong's Instagram account May 10, featuring a sunny-hued photo of the blogger looking toward the sky.
"Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 — May 9, 2023," the caption began. "'It takes an ocean not to break.' Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else."
Armstrong died by suicide, her boyfriend Pete Ashdown told The Associated Press, saying he found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home.
No further details have been shared. Armstrong is survived by daughters Leta, 19, and Marlo, 14, and ex-husband, Jon Armstrong.
Responding to a comment on the post asking if the news was true, Jon replied, "Afraid so."
An outpouring of support for Armstrong flooded the comments, including many from fellow notable bloggers.
"My heart is breaking," Ree Drummond, known as "The Pioneer Woman," wrote.
Jenny Lawson, known as "The Bloggess" online, wrote, "I don’t have the words except to say that I’m holding her family in the light."
"Heartbroken over this news," author Claire Bidwell Smith commented.
Armstrong rose to fame as a writer when she launched her blog "Dooce," a name which came from Armstrong's co-workers, in 2001, and quickly amassed a following while sharing about the relatable ups and downs of pregnancy, motherhood and marriage.
Known as "The Queen of Mommy Blogging" and called one of the most influential women in media by FORBES, Armstrong was also open about her struggles with depression as a parent. She was one of the first mom bloggers to write honestly and openly about her mental health, and her stories about the hard parts of parenting struck a deep chord with many other mothers.
It wasn't the only first for Armstrong, who also became one of the first bloggers to leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2012, Armstrong announced she was splitting from her husband of more than a decade in a blog post.
“I’m sad and devastated but not sure I’ve ever been as stable as I am right now,” Armstrong wrote on her blog at the time.
In an April 15, 2012 interview with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Armstrong said she was "really scared" to share the news.
"A lot of people bring their own perspective and experience to something like this and I didn't know if talking about it was going to destroy everything," Armstrong said at the time. "I thought I had to talk about it, because I felt inauthentic not to share what was going on, because I've been so open about my life for almost 11 years."
From 2008 to 2019, Armstrong authored four books: “Dear Daughter: The Best of the Dear Leta Letters,” “It Sucked And Then I Cried,” “Things I Learned About My Dad In Therapy” and “The Valedictorian of Being Dead.”
In recent years, Armstrong openly shared her struggle with depression, and in 2017, she enrolled in a clinical trial intended to see if depression could be treated by putting patients into chemically-induced comas.
“I was feeling like life was not meant to be lived,” Armstrong told Vox in 2019. “When you are that desperate, you will try anything. I thought my kids deserved to have a happy, healthy mother, and I needed to know that I had tried all options to be that for them.”
This story will be updated.
