ALEXANDER McQUEEN killed himself due to pressure of work and feeling “overwhelmed” with grief, the inquest into the fashion designer’s death heard today.


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“He had been particularly close to his mother and following her death had become overwhelmed with grief,” Coroner’s officer Lynda Martindill told Westminster Coroner’s Court.

The inquest also heard that McQueen suffered from depression, had attempted to end his life before and had researched suicide on the internet.

“He certainly felt very pressured by his work, but it was a double-edged sword,” McQueen’s psychiatrist, Dr Stephen Pereira, told the court.

“He felt it was the only area of his life where he felt he had achieved something. Usually after a show he felt a huge come-down. He felt isolated. It gave him a huge low.”

Today’s proceedings put the official verdict of suicide on McQueen’s death, though it had already emerged that he had ended his life by hanging himself in a wardrobe, the day before his mother’s funeral.

The designer had “killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed,” said Dr Paul Knapman, Westminster Coroner.

Alexander McQueen died on 11 February 2010, aged 40.