Chester Bennington’s Widow ‘Looking Into’ His Account Retweeting Chris Cornell’s Wife

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Late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington’s Twitter account had its first activity yesterday since the singer died on July 20th. The account retweeted a Chris Cornell tribute tweeted by Vicky Cornell on July 11th, but Chester’s widow Talinda said she was not responsible for the retweet, and was having it looked into. The tweet was a video of Chris Cornell’s Audioslave bandmates performing “Like a Stone.” You can watch the video at the bottom of this story.

Talinda tweeted, “I did not retweet on my husband’s account. We are having it looked into. I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Talinda herself suffered a Twitter hack shortly following her husband’s death. Since Chester passed, Talinda has been raising awareness for suicide prevention and mental health issues on social media, and consoled and communicated with grieving fans.

A fan named Annette tweeted her yesterday, “my father committed suicide when I was 12 . I grew up believing suicide is an option. No one taught me its not. Tell ur its not.”

Talinda responded, “We plan on teaching everyone it is not ?.”

Talinda tweeted a link to a new blog written by Dr. Rebecca Harvey on Heart Warriors titled ‘Finding Motivation After Losing Heart.’  Read the blog below:

In October of 2016, just as I was getting into the swing with launching Heart Warriors, my best male friend passed away suddenly.  Larry had been such an inspiration, a unique presence in the world blending a fun, spontaneous, adventurous, exhuberant energy with a deeply spiritually-based acceptance of others.  With an entrepreneurial spirit, Larry had inspired me by starting T-shirt lines and various other companies over the decades.  Something about his death took the wind out of my sails for Heart Warriors.   I just couldn’t motivate to focus on marketing Heart Warriors in addition to my career as a psychologist and meditation instructor.  I gave myself compassionate permission to just let it go–no idea of when I would reengage.

In July of this year the husband of my best friend, father of my Godchildren, took his own life.  Gut wrenching.  He was like a brother to me.  My family.  However, I found it difficult to be fully in my own sadness, as my heart hurt so deeply for his family’s loss, including my best friend, Talinda and the 7 children he parented (Jaime, Isaiah, Alyssa, Draven, Tyler, Lila and Lily).  I stayed in my anger around his death for several weeks–not at him, but rather feeling a protective energy toward this family I considered my own and the chaos around them during their time of tragedy.   Only in the last couple of weeks have I felt myself move into the depths of sadness around the death of this loving, compassionate, generous, hilarious, talented and influential man.

It is difficult to grieve someone who others know as a celebrity.  A very different experience from grieving my friend Larry.  Those who knew Chester are in their own grief (for instance, I would typically lean on or commiserate with my bff during a time like this, which is clearly not appropriate) and most of those who did not know him can’t help but be curious about the behind the scenes details of his death, etc., which only serves to bring me full circle back into my protective anger.

I believe in the importance of honoring our emotional experience by being fully present with it and allowing it to flow, while not ruminating unnecessarily thus creating a “stuckness” or stagnation of energy and emotion.  I have therefore held a comittment to increase spiritual and self-care practices to support a healthy life balance–honoring my experience while staying open and hopeful for the future of those who loved him.  As part of self-care, I have completely avoided news and social media surrounding his death and the unwanted drama it is creating for my friend.  For any other widow this would be a time to grieve in privacy and peace.  I am in awe of her ability to continue to move forward as a parent, friend and functioning member of society.  Particularly as she is being now bombarded by slandering media publications–all prompted by a bitter fb rant from her deceased husband’s first wife.

In the midst of what I can graciously refer to as nonsense, I was asked by my best friend to read some social media posts and news articles to understand more deeply what she is handling. While so much of it turned my stomach and infuriated me, I was also touched by and chose to focus on the multitude of fans who have chosen to honor Chester’s life by bettering their own life and helping those in need…something he valued and embodied.  He gave a tremendous amount to the world and I loved seeing Twitter and Instagram tags  #MakeChesterProud, with stories of acts of lovingkindness.  Chester Bennington is the perfect example of a Heart Warrior.  He struggled in life, as all of us do, but consistantly focused on bettering himself, learning, growing, showing up FULLY in the world with an intention to love and support others.  

This week I have been awe struck, almost to confusion, by international fans reaching out, seemingly out of nowhere, to order Heart Warriors shirts (international shipping was previously not an option and they were asking how to get around this).  When I launched this company Chester and Talinda believed in me and my goals to impact the world in a positive and supportive way.  They each posted one twitter photo and one Instagram photo wearing a shirt in support of Heart Warriors.  Promotion is normally something he be solicited and paid for.  What an honor and what true friends–they actually bought shirts when I launched the company (LOL).  But, I shouldn’t have been surprised, as they have always been supportive, thoughtful, generous and encouraging as a couple.  

So now it seems fans who want to hold memorabilia of Chester may be including my t-shirts in the mix?  I don’t totally get it, but I’m so touched by the impact he had on the world as once again Chester is supporting others and promoting a world of love and authenticity–even after his physical body has departed this world.  Because of him I am reengaged with Heart Warriors.  A company mission I truly believe in and want to expand in so many directions… 

Thank you for being exactly who you were and who you forever are in this world, Chester.

I love you.