Late Miss USA Cheslie Kryst had high-functioning depression, her mum says

The mother of Cheslie Kryst, the former Miss USA who jumped to her death on January 30, has broken her silence about losing her daughter.

According to April Simpkins, the 30-year-old beauty queen suffered from high-functioning depression.

“I have never known a pain as deep as this. I am forever changed. Today, what our family and friends privately knew was the cause of death of my sweet baby girl, Cheslie, was officially confirmed,” her mother wrote on Instagram on February 2.

She seemed to be referring to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner’s confirmation that Kryst’s death was a suicide.

“While it may be hard to believe, it’s true. Cheslie led both a public and a private life. In her private life, she was dealing with high-functioning depression which she hid from everyone — including me, her closest confidant — until very shortly before her death,” Simpkins added.

Kryst, who was also an entertainment correspondent for the TV show ‘Extra’, was found dead on the sidewalk near her midtown Manhattan apartment building on the morning of January 30. She lived by herself on the ninth floor but was last seen on a terrace area on the 29th floor.

“We miss her laugh, her words of wisdom, her sense of humor and mostly her hugs,” Simpkins wrote. “We miss all of it — we miss all of her. She was a vital part of our family which makes this loss even more devastating.”

Kryst, who was also an athlete and attorney, won the Miss USA crown in May 2019 and competed in the Miss Universe pageant that year.

Her mum Simpkins was also a beauty queen in the past, having been crowned Mrs North Carolina in 2002 and inspiring Kryst to follow a similar path.

“It was a time in my life when I didn’t’ know who I was and wasn’t confident in myself,” Kryst told AP in 2019. “I was that little weird kid who had a unibrow and didn’t have any friends. My hair was always pulled back. I thought I want to be just like her.”