As you’ve no doubt heard, Russell Armstrong, the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Taylor Armstrong, was found dead yesterday from what police are calling a suicide.
TMZ.com reported that a roommate discovered Armstrong, 47, hanging in a bedroom in his Los Angeles home. No suicide note was found.
Personal and financial trouble plagued Armstrong in the past few years. In July, he was slammed with a $1.5 million breach of contract lawsuit by a company that claimed he misused their funds to redecorate the mansion he shared with Taylor and their 5-year-old daughter, Kennedy. Taylor and Russell also had well-documented altercations (a recent National Enquirer article stated that Taylor had a steel plate inserted into her eye socket during an operation to save her eye after Russell punched her in the face). Russell admitted to People magazine that things would get hot with his wife, but: “This [TV] show has literally pushed us to the limit.”
“His credit cards weren’t working. … He had tremendous financial problems,” Armstrong’s lawyer Ronald Richards told TMZ. “He was also extremely bummed out about the divorce with Taylor.”
All of this is awful, but here’s the truly horrendous part: Apparently the problems between Taylor and Russell were going to be a huge plot point in the next season of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” set to premiere Sept. 5 on Bravo. “All of us at Bravo are deeply saddened by this tragic news. Our sympathy and thoughts are with the Armstrong family at this difficult time,” the cable network said in a statement. But Bravo offered no word whether or not they are going to continue with the second season as planned.
On one hand, it’s terrible that the network would even think of airing the show, as a man is now dead and a little girl is without a father. On the other, you know deep down that you would watch. And so would millions of other rubber-necking Americans. Sad, but so very true.
So what do you think, readers? Should Bravo take the low road and continue on with Season 2 as planned, or scrap it and let this troubled family be at peace? Write in to let me know.
For more gossip news visit Dorothy Robinson’s Word blog. Follow her on Twitter @DorothyatMetro.
