Rebecca Gayheart finally discusses car accident that killed a child and made her want to die
Sonja Haller
For almost 20 years, Rebecca Gayheart said she talked to almost no one about her tragic car accident that killed a 9-year-old boy.
The "Beverly Hills, 90210" alum said the timing was right after 18 years, and she opened up on friend Laura Cathcart Robbins' podcast, "The Only One in the Room."
She revealed on the show that after striking the boy, who died from his injuries the next day, her life spun out.
"I did not cope very well after," she said on the show. "I just didn't want to live after that accident. ... I couldn't handle it at all, so I spent about a year just trying to kill myself, basically by doing every self-destructive thing a person can do because I just didn't understand … any of it."
How the accident happened
On June 13, 2001, Gayheart said she was driving when the car in front of her hit the brakes. She went around it, though she knows she shouldn't have.
"If a car in front of you hits their brakes and they stop, you don't go around them to avoid hitting them. You hit them because there's a reason they're stopping," she said. "I couldn't see that reason, but that is something that everyone should know."
She struck Jorge Cruz Jr. as he ran after a soccer ball, she said.
Gayheart, 47, said she suffered from PTSD and nightmares after the incident. She still replays the accident in her head.
The actress was sentenced to probation, a one-year suspension of her license, a $2,800 fine and 750 hours of community service after pleading no contest to vehicular manslaughter in November 2001. She settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the child’s parents out of court, and paid for his funeral and medical expenses.
'My kids are everything'
Gayheart said after sharing her story two weeks ago, she has received heaps of support. But the support that has meant the most is from her two daughters, Billie Beatrice, 9, and Georgia Geraldine, 7, whom she shares with Eric Dane.
Her daughters hugged her after she made an emotional speech this weekend at the 18th annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball. Chrysalis works to help individuals out of homelessness and poverty by giving them tools to find employment.
“Right now, my kids are everything, my kids keep me in line,” she told People at the event.
The actress said "she can't imagine what his parents are still feeling like."
The emotional struggle may not ever be fully over, but Gayheart said she's found a way to move forward.
"I still have those questions, but today I am able to ponder those questions and still realize that I deserve to be happy and that I am meant to be on this planet and that I have a purpose and I'm making living amends for that, even though it was an accident," she said.