Gary Speed suicide: result of imminent tabloid splash?

[Bangpuss]

There are only a few rumours at this stage -- mainly on message boards and Twitter -- that Gary Speed hanged himself on Sunday after receiving a call from a reporter on Saturday night about his sex life. It is also rumoured that the story was to out him as being gay, or having homosexual relationships.

The number one suspect, The Sun, has denied investigating Speed "in any way" on its Twitter feed, and in an article by the Daily Telegraph.

But the story that his suicide was caused by depression doesn't seem to add up, since his wife of 16 years claims to have no knowledge of his depression. He was said to be happy and in good spirits on Saturday, during and after filming Football Focus, and made plans to appear on the show again. Robbie Savage spoke to him on the phone, and said there was no sign of him being depressed in any way.

So something sudden seems to have prompted his suicide.

Someone who works for the BBC received a call from an insider claiming that The Sun was about to run a story about his sexuality and possibly an affair, and called Speed for comment on Saturday night. He was found dead on Sunday morning.

With the News of the World gone -- and along with the Sunday Mirror, the most probable destination for such gossip -- it means The Sun, if they had the story, had until Sunday evening to change the story before they went to print.

Since the Sun is the only daily title without a Sunday 'sister' paper, it's the only paper that had the time to hold back on the story once they learnt of his death. Any of the others wouldn't have had time to change their Sunday editions after learning of his suicide.

However, it seems odd that if the story was to run on Monday, the Sun would call him on Saturday. Usually they wait until the last minute, i.e. Sunday evening, to ask for a comment, to avoid the subject taking out a last-minute injunction.

Does anyone have any thoughts or insight to add?

 

[baboon2004]

Don't enough about how tabloids are run to comment on that part.

As to the circumstances around his suicide, it's (logically) common for those about to take their own lives to be upbeat, more so than normal, having taken a decision to end everything, thus ending months/years of mental torment over what decision to take and so experiencing a kind of release, or at least expectation of imminent release.

As to his wife not having any knowledge of his depression, she might not be telling the whole truth for various reasons, or might not even have been aware it was depression/that the depression was half as bad as it potentially was.

On top of that, if he did commit suicide because he was scared of being 'outed', then it's fair to say that he was probably very depressed in his seemingly 'perfect' life in this case too. Harsh as it is, I think that immense unhappiness in his life must have been the reason for his seeming suicide either way (something that is seemingly often skated over in cases of suicide, which I dont' think is helpful).

Given the homophobia in football though, the story does add up logically.

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah, the being outed theory meas that he must have been keeping a huge part of his life secret from his wife anyway. By Ocam's Razor I don't really see the necessity for the second version - not until there is more evidence anyway.