The True Stories Behind Reality TV's Biggest Tragedies

This article mentions addiction, suicide, and sexual assault. 

For better or worse, reality television is part of pop culture. The masses are obsessed with how being on TV escalates Kardashian family drama and can't help but watch shows like "Love Island" and "Southern Charm." Audiences find following the lives of real people — or at least some version of their real life — quite fascinating, sometimes more so than a scripted series. But reality television also carries with it a burden that scripted shows (for the most part) do not have. 

 When watching a scripted series, audiences can separate what's happening to the characters from what goes on in the actors' real lives. However, when watching reality TV, the subjects are real people, and what happens to them on the show is happening in real life. Sometimes, it's exciting, like when a baby is born or a reality star gets married. Other times, however, it's dark and tragic, and it's especially hard to stomach these tragedies when they're caught on camera, whether the footage is aired or not. Plenty of darkness has clouded the lives of reality stars, but the following anecdotes are particularly upsetting. These are the true stories behind reality TV's biggest tragedies. 

"My 600-Lb Life" has been a staple on TLC for years. The series documents how adults who are morbidly obese live, and it follows them in their efforts to lose weight. Many of the episodes feature inspiring stories of the human will to live, but not all the stories have ended so positively. Multiple "My 600-Lb Life" stars have unfortunately died, and in 2017, Robert Buchel joined that list while filming an episode of the series. The episode aired the following year, and it shed light on Buchel's tragic end. In the months leading up to Buchel's death, he was trying to lose weight. It was a grueling process that involved him and his fiancee, Kathryn Lemanski, moving to Houston to receive medical care from Dr. Younan Nowzaradan. Still, he successfully lost hundreds of pounds through various methods, including a surgery that removed one of the lymphedema masses he had.

Unfortunately, what we know about Buchel's death is that the surgery played a major role. Buchel struggled to recover from the operation, which sent him into a depression. The reality star also revealed that he had become addicted to pain medication, and soon after, he was transferred to a rehabilitation center. While there, Buchel did not exercise despite encouragement, citing pain, and weeks after entering the facility, he died of a heart attack. "I lost my best friend and the person I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with," Lemanski said after Buchel's death, as reported by the Daily Mail.

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Ticks may seem like nothing but a nuisance, but they're far worse than that, something to which cast and crew members of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" can attest. In 2014, while filming a season of the British reality series that tests celebrities' survival skills under extreme conditions, the cast and crew were stuck in the jungle and subject to a tick infestation. "So far we have had 30 members of the crew affected. It's serious. In fact, I have just sent a crew member home for two days. He has a swelling on the back of his head that's half the size of an ostrich egg," the show's medic Bob McCarron told Digital Spy at the time.

Swelling isn't the only issue that can arise from a tick bite. Most of the time, tick bites aren't serious, especially if tended to properly and swiftly. Still, ticks can infect humans with long-term and potentially fatal diseases, like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, among others. That same year, the celebrities had to put up with other wicked creatures. "It's our biggest year for snakes. We found a venomous snake in camp this week, and we found a venomous snake in one of the camera hides," McCarron added. "We have also had crews bitten by funnel-web spiders this year." Thankfully, no one suffered any lasting or fatal ailments from the ticks, snakes, and spiders, but the organisms did make for supremely unpleasant conditions.

The 2007 reality series "Pirate Master" only had one season. The show followed contestants as they lived out their pirate fantasies while sailing around the Caribbean. The series took a dark turn when Cheryl Kosewicz, the fourth contestant to be eliminated from the show, died by an apparent suicide shortly after her exit from "Pirate Master." Kosewicz, a former attorney, had lost her boyfriend to suicide just months before. "Truthfully, I've lost the strong Cheryl and I'm just floating around lost," Kosewicz said on MySpace just prior to her death, per the Daily Telegraph. Another comment she left seemingly blamed "Pirate Master" for her state. "And this frik'n show doesn't help because it was such a contention between Ryan and I and plus its [sic] not getting good reviews," she said.

Though Kosewicz wasn't on the series long, she did seem to make a strong connection with another contestant, Jocelyn "Joy" McElveen. McElveen shared her own sadness on MySpace following her friend's death. "I lay in my bed tossing and turning waiting on someone to wake me up from this horrible nightmare. What nightmare you may ask? The nightmare that I thought I would never have to deal with the news that my best friend is dead. I immediately scream out in pain and sorrow," she said.

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Animal fans of the late '90s and early '00s were taken with Steve Irwin. The Aussie and star of "The Crocodile Hunter," who came to be known by the title of his show, had a unique relationship with animals that was marked by his respect and lack of fear, even in the face of some of the deadliest animals known to man. In 2006, while filming the documentary "Ocean's Deadliest," Steve was swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, and a stingray's barb went through his chest and killed him. "All of a sudden [the stingray] propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds," one of the cameramen told The Independent of the tragedy. "The stingray barb was a blade of about a foot extending out of the tail. Steve didn't pull it out; it's a jagged, sharp barb and it went through Steve's chest like a hot knife through butter."

Steve and his family had apparently had suspicions that he would die young, but they didn't think it would be at the hands of a stingray. "I never thought it would be an animal, he never thought it would be an animal," Steve's wife, Terri Irwin, said, per CNN. "I thought he would fall out of a tree, he thought it would be a car accident." Steve's family was offered a state funeral, but they opted for a private ceremony instead. The family did host a public service weeks later, and it was broadcast live in Australia, Asia, and the United States. To this day, nobody knows where Steve Irwin is buried.

Multiple French reality television shows have had major tragedies, too. In 2015, 10 people died after one helicopter crashed into another while filming the series "Dropped." The premise of the reality program was that star athletes would be blindfolded and, per the title, dropped somewhere (like Argentina, where the crash occurred) with only water and a GPS, with the aftermath documented. Sailor Florence Arthaud and boxer Alexis Vastine were slated to be on the series and died in the accident. Olympic Gold medalist swimmer Camille Muffat was also set to be a contestant but instead joined the list of Olympic athletes who have sadly died. No one survived the crash, and it was announced soon after that the series had been canceled.

The incident was met with much investigation. French authorities authorized a manslaughter investigation, and experts traveled to the site of the accident to uncover what exactly happened. "All of ALP staff is heartbroken and feeling the pain of victims' families and close ones with which they are in touch," Adventure Line Productions, the production company filming the series, stated after the crash, per Deadline. The crash unearthed some upsetting information regarding ALP. Per reports, before the crash, ALP had been found guilty of hundreds of counts of violating labor and safety laws. One lawyer asserted that it was cheaper for the production company to continue violating laws and paying the fines rather than following the safety laws, and ALP's continued breaches ultimately resulted in the helicopter crash.

"Survivor" was defined by dramatic eliminations and strategic gameplay and is one of the most popular reality shows of all time. However, its international legacy has been marred by tragedy. In 2013, while the French version of the series was filming in Cambodia, 25-year-old contestant Gerald Babin died of a heart attack after participating in a tug-of-war challenge. Babin sought immediate medical attention from the on-site doctor and was then transferred to a local hospital, during which his heart stopped multiple times. The season was canceled amid the tragedy, and months later, an investigation was opened to determine whether Adventure Line Productions, the production company behind the series, was responsible for Babin's death. "Adventure Line Productions, TF1, and [host] Denis Broginart are devastated and join in the profound sadness of Gerald's family," French television network TF1 said in a statement upon Babin's death, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Adding to the tragedy, in the month following Babin's death, Dr. Thierry Costa, the on-site doctor who treated the reality contestant, died by suicide in a Cambodian hospital after apparently receiving anonymous comments asserting that Costa could have saved Babin. "I am sure that I treated Gerald in a respectable manner, as a patient and not as a contestant. Even though I regret this sad end, I also acted in conformity with the Hippocratic oath," Costa wrote in a note, per BBC. The series continued after the season's cancellation, but a few years later, another season of the series was canceled following allegations of sexual assault.

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Jenni Rivera rose to fame as a Mexican American singer who didn't conform to typical gender norms, both in music and life. She was introduced to an even wider audience thanks to her reality series "I Love Jenni," which was filming at the time of her death. In December of 2012, after performing a concert in Monterrey, Mexico, Rivera and others took off on a private jet, and soon after, air traffic controllers no longer had contact with the aircraft. The plane was later found, and authorities determined that it had crashed, killing everyone on board. "The aircraft was destroyed, totally fragmented," Alejandro Argudin, director general of Civil Aviation, told Televisa upon the discovery, per CNN.

The third season of "I Love Jenni" turned out to be far more emotional than anyone had anticipated. Because of the timing of filming, Rivera's family and team decided to show footage of their life after her death. "Her whole career, there was nothing off-limits. The kids and everyone figured mom would want us to show the world how we're dealing with this just [as] how mom dealt with all of the headlines that were part of her career," Rivera's manager, Pete Salgado told The Hollywood Reporter. He added, "It's a reflection more than a tribute because a tribute is an effort. A reflection is the byproduct, and this is definitely the byproduct of Jenni and who she was as an entertainer, who she was as a mother, a business associate and entrepreneur and a pioneer."

Taylor Armstrong gained notoriety after joining the cast of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" for its inaugural season. Taylor's time on the show in the first season was marked by allegations of an abusive marriage and financial issues, and while filming the second season, Taylor's then-estranged husband, Russell Armstrong, (she had filed for divorce just weeks prior) died by suicide. In between the divorce filing and Russell's death, the former couple had both been named in a $1.5 million lawsuit alleging Russell's company had misappropriated funds. The aftermath of Russell's death was shown in Season 2 of the reality series, with Taylor's cast members wondering aloud if problems in her and Russell's marriage, coupled with their financial issues, led to Russell's death.

Taylor opened up about her past relationship and the abuse she underwent after Russell's death, sharing that she wanted to join the cast of the famed Bravo show as a shelter of sorts. "I thought one of two things would happen: either the cameras would force him not to be aggressive and abusive or it would give me a way out," she told the Los Angeles Times. Many were critical of Bravo's decision to air what happened to the Armstrong family, but Taylor later said she wanted to share her story. "I was supportive of Season 2 airing, despite all that I was going through, because I did want people to see what it was like, what I went through, so that they could also have hope that there was something on the other side," Taylor told Bravo.

MTV has long been home to controversial reality shows, but none have resulted in tragedy quite like "Buckwild." The 2013 series, branded as an Appalachian version of "Jersey Shore," had a successful first season and turned cast members Shain Gandee and others into quick stars. Unfortunately, while filming the second season, Gandee and two others were found dead in a vehicle stuck in the mud in West Virginia. The trio had been missing since their last sighting at a bar at 3:00 a.m. "Kanawha County can now report partial findings from the autopsies of Shain Lelyn Gandee, David Dwight Gandee, and Donald Robert Myers. The manner of death is accidental and the cause was carbon monoxide poisoning for all three subjects," Corporal Brian Humphreys said of the deaths, per The Guardian. Authorities believe the car's muffler was blocked by mud, causing exhaust to get into the vehicle and poisoning the passengers.

Upon the deaths, members of the media and prominent West Virginians called for the show to be canceled. MTV halted filming immediately, and the second season never aired. "We are shocked and saddened by the terrible news about Shain Gandee, and those involved in this tragic incident," an MTV representative said about tragedy. The family shared initially that they were struggling to pay for a funeral but that they had plans to hold a fundraiser. Ultimately, a funeral was hosted for Gandee that boasted hundreds of mourners.