The 'American Honey' actress explains that the past year feels 'like I was thrown into the ocean and couldn't swim' after Benjamin Keough took his own life at the age of 27.
- Jul 21, 2021
AceShowbiz - The death of Riley Keough's brother was clearly hard to accept. More than a year after Benjamin Keough died by suicide, the "American Honey" actress claimed in a new interview that she couldn't "get out of bed" for months following the tragedy.
The 32-year-old star opened up about her grieving process when sitting down with The New York Times. "[Last year feels] like I was thrown into the ocean and couldn’t swim," she noted. "The first four or five months, I couldn't get out of bed. I was totally debilitated. I couldn't talk for two weeks."
"It's very complicated for our minds to put that somewhere because it's so outrageous," the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough went on. "If I'm going through a breakup, I know what to do with that and where to file it in my mind, but suicide of your brother? Where do you put that? How does that integrate? It just doesn't."
Riley said she could get through the difficult time with the help of her husband Ben Smith-Petersen and her friends. However, she made sure to tackle her grief head-on. "I wanted to make sure that I was feeling everything and I wasn't running from anything," she elaborated.
The Christine Reade of "The Girlfriend Experience" then decided to become a death doula. "That's really what's helped me, being able to put myself in a position of service," she divulged. "If I can help other people, maybe I can find some way to help myself."
Benjamin passed away at the age of 27 in July 2020 after he allegedly locked himself in the bathroom of the Presleys' Calabasas home with a shotgun. He was found "suffering from one gunshot wound" and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Earlier this month, Riley paid tribute to Benjamin on his first death anniversary. Sharing some throwback pictures of the two on Instagram, she penned, "Today has been a year without you baby brother. I miss you endlessly every day. @jj_silkyhands."
