‘The Talk' Show Host Marie Osmond Reflects on Son’s Suicide 10 Years Later

(Shutterstock | Kathy Hutchins)

Prolific country music singer Marie Osmond’s 18-year-old son Michael Blosil jumped off the eighth-floor balcony of his downtown Los Angeles apartment and died on Feb. 26, 2010. Embarking on a new chapter in her career almost a decade later, Osmond takes pause to reflect upon the tragic loss that still impacts her life today.

Osmond attends the 4th Annual National Believe Day at Macy's Pasadena in California on Dec. 14, 2012. (©Getty Images | Jason Merritt)

Osmond had spoken to Michael just a day before his death. “The hardest thing,” she told Oprah Winfrey a year after Michael’s passing, “I told him, I said, ‘Mike, I’m going to be there Monday and it’s going to be okay.’ But depression doesn’t wait until Monday.”

Michael was one of five children that Osmond and her ex-husband, Brian Blosil, adopted before separating in 2007. One year after the divorce, Osmond and her eight children left Utah for a new life in Las Vegas and a new direction for Osmond on “Dancing with the Stars.”

After a stint in rehab for substance abuse in 2007, it was also a chance to start over for Michael. However, despite battling with poor mental health and addiction, Michael was thriving at high school and was a talented musician, much like his estranged biological father.

His death left the family reeling. Michael wrote a suicide note explaining that he had intended to end his life after a lengthy, insurmountable battle with depression; he felt as though he had no friends and could never fit in.

Osmond’s “Dancing with the Stars” partner Jonathan Roberts spoke to People after Michael’s death, recalling how Osmond had visited her son in rehab. “We’d stop our lessons so she could call,” Roberts said. “She would always make time for her kids. She is such a good mother.”

As of October 2019, Osmond, 60, is the newest co-host of CBS’s “The Talk” show, while simultaneously wrapping up her Las Vegas residency with brother Donny Osmond.

Flowers placed in front of the building on South Flower Street in Los Angeles, where Michael committed suicide on Feb. 28, 2010 (©Getty Images | Toby Canham)

Osmond, approaching the 10-year anniversary of Michael’s death, opened up to her co-hosts on “The Talk” in early October 2019. “I haven’t spoken about this before, but my son, who died, he was bullied. He was bullied very heavily right up until the time that he committed suicide,” she said.

Three teens had targeted Michael and teased him about his sobriety, Osmond explained. “I’ve got the texts,” she told her co-hosts. “They’re horrendous, and I never took action against it, but I can tell you honestly that I believe that was a high component in him just feeling overwhelmed and that he didn’t fit in.”

The grief of losing her son, Osmond said, follows her wherever she goes. “You know, I don’t think you’re ever through it,” Osmond admitted to CBS.

“I think God gives you respites,” she added, “and then all of a sudden it will hit you like the day it did. The ripple effect is so huge, what you leave behind.”

Osmond has channeled her heartbreak into maintaining an open discussion on mental health ever since losing Michael.

The entertainer also focuses on the joy that remains in her life, including her remarriage to first husband Stephen Craig and the couple’s growing brood of grandchildren.

Thinking of the teenage son who may be gone but is not forgotten, Osmond reflected, “I know I'll see him again. I know I will.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, seek support from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255.

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A family shattered by son’s suicide, he was bullied constantly