A British singer who was a member of the girl group G.R.L took her own life, an inquest has found.
Lauren Bennett, 36, who also featured on LMFAO’s 2011 hit Party Rock Anthem, was found dead in Kent on 29 May.
In a statement read out by an assistant coroner on Friday, her husband Kenny Wormald said she had been struggling with severe mental health issues before her death.
The court heard she told him she was going out for a walk on the morning of her death while he remained in bed half asleep.
When she did not return for a few hours and did not answer calls or texts from him and multiple other family members, Wormald and her father went looking for her.
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He went to a rural location using Find My iPhone for Bennett’s device where he found her body.
The professional dancer said the pair talked about everything and there was no indication she was going to end her life.
Her father, Richard Bennett, said his daughter had lived an “amazing life” in a statement read out by assistant coroner Jyoti Gill.
He said she signed a record deal at just 17 and moved to the US on her own.
Pages of farewell notes were later found at her home, Kent and Medway Coroners’ Court heard.
Bennett had previously been diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause anxiety, mood instability and depression, it was also told.
In the January before her death, the musician did not sleep for a number of days and was admitted to hospital under a mental health section.
She had experienced “substantial psychological suffering” since this point, Gill noted.
Bennett was in the care of “special mental health services” at the time of her death.
She had reacted poorly to medication and did not think she was going to get better, the court was told.
No alcohol or illicit drugs were found in Bennett’s system when she died.
Bennett’s former musical group G.R.L. shared the news of her death on its Instagram account in July.
“Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us,” they said.
Party Rock Anthem has been named the fifth most successful song of all time by Billboard after spending six weeks as the number one song on its Hot 100 in 2011.
Bennett also featured alongside LMFAO members in the song’s music video, which has more than 2.5bn views on YouTube.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
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