He Drove Himself To His Death
Only days before Bobby Darin's tragic death, his ex-wife lamented" "If Bobby doesn't quit his overworked pace, he'll kill himself."Andrea Yeager Darin made this grim prophesy to an Enquirer reporter. Eight days later, the man Andrea loved was dead.
Bobby Darin, who had suffered for years from a severe heart condition, died on December 20 at the age of 37 - after having his second open heart operation in 2 years.
In an exclusive interview on December 12, Andrea - without makeup and looking gaunt from sleepless nights of worry - revealed how Darin's medical problems led to the breakup of their short-lived marriage.
"Bobby's been ill for a long time and he's been working too hard - trying to cram too much into too short a time," sighed 32-year-old Andrea, nervously picking at her long fingernails as she sat hunched over with elbows on knees in her small Beverly Hills apartment. "No matter how hard I pleaded for him to slow down, he wouldn't let up...and now he's in the hospital."
Darin had been rushed to the intensive care unit of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles on December 10 with congestive heart failure. Andrea, her classically beautiful face drawn with sadness said, "Bobby divorced me last October after only 4 months of marriage. I'm convinced he did it to save me the pain and anxiety I was going through worrying about his health." Andrea's soft eyes brimmed with tears as she recalled the scene that destroyed her marriage.
"It was October 1 and we were outside his doctor's office. I begged Bobby to take a long rest and find out why he was progressively losing his strength. He didn't say a word. He just left me and walked off. He never came home...." Her voice trailed off in anguish.
"Two days later I read in the trade newspapers that we were getting a divorce. That's how I found out! I had no idea," she stammered. "Our life together was beautiful for three years when we lived together. Then we got married, but the timing was wrong."
They were married in June, just days after Darin was released from the hospital where he spent six weeks for treatment of an infection of his heart valve. We went on vacation, then Bobby worked for four weeks at Las Vegas and worked some more at Lake Tahoe. He never recuperated. He refused to take it easy. He was such a perfectionist that everything had to be done right."
No one could stop Darin's gritty drive for perfection even though his private physician shared Andrea's concern that the entertainer needed rest. "Bobby puts so much energy into his act - he should slow down," Dr. Raymond Weston told the Enquirer shortly after Darin entered the hospital for the last time.
"Bobby's had some difficulty recovering from his open heart surgery in 1971. This is because he contracted inflammation of the lining of the heart and its valves last May and this always leads to complications. This seems to be the cause of his present condition."
Throughout the interview with Andrea, who daily visited Darin's bedside, she fought a losing battle to control her emotions. "I'm still in shock about the divorce. If only he slows down so he won't kill himself, maybe we could get back together. You see, I still love Bobby very much."
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