Darius Campbell Danesh' ex-wife remembers him on third anniversary of death
The former Pop Idol contestant passed away at the age of 41 in August 2022 after inhaling chloroethane - also known as ethyl chloride - at his Minnesota apartment.
Three years on from the tragedy, the 50-year-old Canadian actress - who filed for divorce from the Colourblind hitmaker in 2013, after just over two years of marriage - has admitted she still misses him dearly.
Alongside a series of pictures of Darius, including one of the couple posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, she penned on Instagram on August 11: "Love and light always. Miss you today…. Sending love to the Danesh's and everyone whose life he touched."
According to his girlfriend, Darius had been "living with a broken neck" and an undiagnosed heart condition when he died.
Lauren Cheek explained that an autopsy revealed that his heart was "twice the size" it should have been and that she believes he used the recreational anaesthetic to alleviate the pain.
She told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "Darius was living with this heart condition that he didn't know he had. So many things could have taken him, but this one thing did, and he died in his sleep.
"His mum told me they only found out after they did the autopsy. His heart was twice the size it was supposed to be, which was fitting, because that is genuinely how he was — he had so much love.
"The autopsy also found he was living with a broken neck, but he refused to get help or complain about it. I think he used (chloroethane) because he was in so much pain and he didn't want to take pills, not even aspirin. That's what killed him — the substance mixed with his heart and he couldn't take it."
Lauren went on to add that Darius - who shot to fame when he gave a memorable rendition of Britney Spears' hit '...Baby One More Time' on the ITV talent show Popstars before releasing a string of hit singles and eventually going on to star in the West End - had sustained his injuries whilst racing with Hollywood actor Gerard Butler and always "refused" when she urged him to see a doctor.
She added: "He was with Gerry (Butler) in Monaco for the Grand Prix and they slammed into a wall during a race with the Prince of Monaco. I don't think it ever fully healed and then he rebroke it because he got hit by a car in London a year or two before he died when he was riding a bike.
"And then he got into a car accident with his dad in Scotland. D was in the passenger seat, his dad was driving and someone drove into them.
"He was always in pain and I would beg him to see the doctor, but he refused. He was trying to find a natural remedy.'
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