Cricket legend Graham Thorpe 'asked wife to help end his life' before being hit by a train
Graham Thorpe asked his wife Amanda to help him end his suffering before he decided to take his own life, an inquest has heard.
Thorpe was found dead on August 4 after being hit by a train. The England cricket legend had been struggling with anxiety and depression before his death.
The 55-year-old had made an attempt on his life in May 2022 and spent a lengthy period of time in hospital recovering. That came after he had been sacked by the England and Wales Cricket Board as a coach of the England Test team following an incident on an Ashes tour of Australia.
Speaking at an inquest into his death on Wednesday, Thorpe's wife Amanda explained how his life spiralled out of control in his final months last summer.
"The weeks leading up to his death, he told me he doesn't want to be here any more," she told the inquest. "He asked me to help him end his life. He said he wants to go to Switzerland. I was in turmoil."
Thorpe scored 6,744 runs at an average of 44.66 in Test matches for England between 1993 and 2005. He also played 82 ODIs for his country, establishing himself was one of the most talented batters of his generation.
He worked as a batting coach with the England Test team and then as a coach of the Afghanistan side. His father Geoff believes that the Covid-19 lockdown had a seriously negative impact on his life.
"Everything was fine until Covid," he told the inquest. He said Thorpe was "not a fella who likes to be cooped up" and that the loss of his job with England contributed to his life "crashing down" around him.
"What you've got to realise is sometimes us chaps are a little bit macho – we can cope," he added. "In fact, we can't."
Thorpe was sacked by the ECB from his role as assistant coach in early 2022 after a video of him smoking a cigar and drinking inside the team hotel in the early hours of the morning, along with players from both England and Australia, went viral. The police were called to the hotel in Hobart, Tasmania, after a complaint was made.
Thorpe struggled to cope after losing his job and spent eight weeks in hospital after making an attempt on his life in May 2022. His mental health never really recovered and by the summer of 2024 the court heard he had lost interest in food and "wanted to hide away, totally isolated, in real crisis and despair".
On the day of his death, Amanda thought her husband had gone out to walk the dog. She said: "He never really recovered from (his first suicide) attempt.
"He came back from the tour of Australia in a terrible state - lots of things, the video, the environment, the set-up. To be sacked after that I think it was foreseeable that it would be really really hard on him."
Thorpe's family have been open in discussing his mental health struggles and have announced 'A Day For Thorpey' at the Oval during the upcoming fifth Test match in the England vs India series. The left-hander had a 17-year professional career with Surrey at that ground and August 1 would have been his 56th birthday.
Announcing the initiative, which will raise money for mental health charity Mind, Amanda told BBC Breakfast: "That day will be very powerful. We want to celebrate him and his memory. His light was so bright. He'll go on."
Thorpe's daughter Kitty added: "Death and grief in general isn't talked about enough, considering it happens to everyone. It surrounds us. When you add the layer of death by suicide, that makes it even more taboo.
"I understand it's difficult to talk about - people don't want to say the wrong thing. That doesn't help tackle the stigma around it. We need to change the way we're addressing the topic. That's why we're working with Mind to do something to help that."
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