Tragic Details About Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne has always been determined to forge her own path, no matter what. She released her debut album when she was just 17, dropping out of high school to pursue a full-time music career. "I was supposed to do homeschooling — I had books — but I didn't do it. So, basically, I'm a high school dropout," Lavigne said in a 2007 interview. She didn't seem to regret the decision then, and dropping out of high school definitely didn't damage her career — Lavigne thrived and became one of the top pop artists of her time.
While Lavigne skyrocketed to fame, her stardom didn't protect her from the blows life dealt her later on. Despite her successful career, she disappeared for four years after releasing her eponymous fifth studio album. She finished touring the album in 2014, and, suddenly, the queen of rock went silent for a couple of months before revealing she'd been diagnosed with a life-altering disease.
While her career started as a fairytale, her life soon turned into a nightmare. Lavigne's diagnosis was but the first in a long list of tragedies to hit the singer, and when you're as famous as she is, you rarely get to endure your struggles in private. It's been a hard road for Lavigne, but she finally seems to be making a long-awaited comeback. Join us as we take a deep dive into everything she's been through.
Record execs didn't take Avril Lavigne seriously at first
It might not be obvious when you listen to her debut album, "Let Go," but Avril Lavigne had a tough time convincing music industry executives that it was worth making. She was only 15 when she signed a record deal, and she had no idea how brutal Hollywood could be. "[The producers and co-writers] didn't care what I had to say; they had their own style and didn't bother to look at me and try to let me lead," Lavigne told The Guardian. "I was very clear on what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do. I wanted to be angsty and to sound more like a band; I didn't want to be all bubblegum pop," she explained.
Lavigne wasn't interested in singing songs other people wrote — she wanted to write her own music, and she knew what kind of sound she wanted; she just didn't know how to articulate it at the time. "The first six months of making my first album were sh*t, and it went terribly," she admitted to Metal Shout. Eventually, she teamed up with The Matrix, and the trio understood the pop-punk sound she wanted. Finally, Lavigne could make the record she envisioned, but despite "Let Go" seeing major success, she received some harsh criticism, too. She was called "un-punk" and a "sellout" by some critics (per Alternative Press), but their grumblings failed to make a major impact on her career.
The singer divorced her first husband
Avril Lavigne was only 21 when she married her first husband, Deryck Whibley. Whibley was a member of the Canadian rock band Sum 41, and he and Lavigne first met when she was 17. By the time she was 19, the two were dating, and they got engaged in 2005 in Venice, Italy, just as Lavigne finished up her European tour. The couple tied the knot in 2006 during a ceremony in Montecito, California, and, according to a source who spoke to People at the time, it was a fairytale event, with Lavigne walking down the aisle in a Vera Wang gown. The color scheme for the wedding ceremony was all white — Lavigne carried a bouquet of white roses, and white flowers decorated the venue. The reception venue, however, featured red roses and flowers.
While the couple seemed meant to be, Lavigne filed for divorce in 2009. It didn't appear to be a messy breakup, at least according to a statement she issued on her website. "Deryck and I have been together for 6-and-a-half years," she wrote (via People), adding, "I am grateful for our time together, and I am grateful and blessed for our remaining friendship." Lavigne emphasized that she and Whibley were "moving forward on a positive note," but People reported that, before news of the divorce broke, Whibley was seen looking cozy with designer and model Hanna Beth Merjos.
She got a lot of backlash for her Hello Kitty music video
When Avril Lavigne visited Japan to shoot a music video for her single "Hello Kitty," she probably didn't expect to receive an endless wave of backlash upon its release. The video, which was shot in Japan and features Japanese dancers who are all dressed alike and remain expressionless throughout the video, was seen by many as cultural appropriation. Entertainment Weekly raised its eyebrows at the video, questioning what it represented, mentioning "Tokyo-as-prop." Billboard called the video "an embarrassment in any language."
Many also called the video racist. Lavigne remained mum throughout most of the media storm but eventually took to X (then Twitter) to address the claim. "RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND a Japanese director IN Japan," Lavigne wrote.
Despite the backlash the singer received from the Western media, Japanese journalists were much more forgiving. "Searches in the Japanese Twittersphere and blogosphere show that most of the reactions were favorable," Nobuyuki Hayashi, a tech and social media expert from Tokyo, told Billboard. "The people who are blaming the artist for racism are non-Japanese ... but most Japanese people are not taking it that seriously," he said.
The pop star was diagnosed with Lyme disease
In 2014, the typically energetic Avril Lavigne found herself feeling as if she'd been hit by a train. She didn't even have enough energy to jump in the pool with her friends, and Lavigne told People that she had no appetite, felt lightheaded and lethargic, and had no idea what was wrong with her. After struggling to get to the bottom of her health issues, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. She felt relieved to be able to give a name to her condition. "I was like: 'OK, now I can at least start treating something,'" she told The Guardian.
When Lavigne spoke to People, she was experiencing a brief reprieve from Lyme disease, telling the outlet a bit about her experience up to that point. "I was bedridden for five months," she said, adding, "I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying." She went on to explain that because her body was so weakened by the disease, she would be unable to get out of bed. "It felt like having all your life sucked out of you," she said. By the time she spoke to Billboard in 2019, Lavigne revealed that she had been bedridden for two long years and that it felt like being trapped inside her body.
Doctors didn't take her symptoms seriously
When Avril Lavigne first experienced Lyme disease symptoms, doctors misdiagnosed her more than once. She told The Guardian that they attributed her symptoms to chronic fatigue and anxiety. Lavigne, however, was fairly certain that she had Lyme disease. She told Billboard that one of her friends figured it out before the doctors did. The specialists Lavigne went to see, however, didn't take her suspicions seriously. "I was seeing every specialist and literally the top doctors, and they would pull up their computer and be like, 'Chronic fatigue syndrome?' Or, 'Why don't you try to get out of bed, Avril, and just go play the piano?'" Lavigne told "Good Morning America" during an emotional interview. "This is what they do to a lot of people that have Lyme disease. They don't have an answer for them so they tell them 'You're crazy,'" Lavigne said. She described being bedridden without a diagnosis as "literally the worst time of my life."
Lavigne began suspecting she had Lyme disease two months after contracting it, but doctors wouldn't budge. In the end, she opted to go straight to another Lyme sufferer. She called Yolanda Hadid, who shared her journey with Lyme disease on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Hadid referred Lavigne to the specialist who treated her, and so the long road to recovery finally began. She had to take several antibiotics and remained bedbound through most of the treatment.
Avril Lavigne pretended she was fine on the outside
When her fans first noticed that Avril Lavigne had gone radio silent, they grew worried and reached out to her on social media, asking if she was okay. Lavigne didn't initially share her diagnosis with them but did let one fan know she wasn't feeling well. Well-wishes started streaming in shortly after, but Lavigne was still desperate to put up a happy front.
Even though she was barely able to get out of bed, Lavigne would post snaps of herself looking happier than ever on social media. "The second I was up, I would take a picture and post it on Instagram and act like my life was f***ing great," she told Billboard. For a while, it worked. Fans thought Lavigne was dealing with some minor health issues but mostly doing fine. Eventually, she decided to open up about having Lyme disease on "Good Morning America" while promoting her song "Fly" for the Olympics, breaking down in tears and unable to keep up the charade any longer. "I wasn't ready, and I shouldn't have done it. I was a mess," she later told Billboard, adding, "I put on a brave face because I didn't want it to be a part of my identity." Eventually, Lavigne decided to use her platform to raise more awareness about Lyme disease. "I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to relive it. But it's my responsibility," she said.
Avril divorced Chad Kroeger while she was ill
As if being bedridden with Lyme disease wasn't bad enough, Avril Lavigne went through another divorce during this time. When she spoke to People in 2015, Lavigne said that both her mom and her then-husband, Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, were helping to care for her. However, Kroeger apparently found it hard to be there for her all the time since he was touring. It's not clear whether Lavigne's Lyme disease was the cause of their split, but, in September 2015, Lavigne took to Instagram to break the news that she and Kroeger were divorcing. "It is with [a] heavy heart that Chad and I announce our separation today. Through not only the marriage, but the music as well, we've created many unforgettable moments. We are still, and forever will be, the best of friends, and will always care deeply for each other," the now-deleted post read.
Despite the terrible timing of the divorce, it appears that Lavigne and Kroeger remained friends, with Lavigne even defending him when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a very public jab at Nickelback. Kroeger also worked on Lavigne's comeback album, "Head Above Water," so, clearly, there isn't bad blood between the two.
Avril almost died from Lyme disease
After initially downplaying the severity of her Lyme disease, Avril Lavigne finally opened up about just how bad it had gotten in a 2018 interview with Billboard.
At one point during her illness, Lavigne thought she was going to die. Her mother had moved in to take care of her, and Lavigne was lying with her in bed, feeling the worst she'd ever felt. She had trouble breathing and thought that she was about to leave this world forever. "I had accepted that I was dying," she told Billboard. She elaborated on this moment during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I was like, 'I don't think I'm going to make it.' I think I was about to die because I had this weird feeling of, 'Whoa. I feel like I'm on a cliff and I'm about to fall, and it's dark.'" Lavigne, who was raised Christian, said a desperate prayer in that moment. "I felt in that moment like I was underwater and drowning, and I was trying to come up to gasp for air. And literally under my breath, I was like, 'God, help me keep my head above the water,'" she told Billboard.
Shortly after that prayer, she managed to type the words into a note on her phone so she wouldn't forget them. This desperate prayer whispered in one of her darkest moments became the title of Lavigne's comeback single in 2019.
She's had conspiracy theories made up about her
When you're as famous as Avril Lavigne, you're bound to be the main character in some conspiracy theories. Lavigne's, however, is darker than most.
It started with a Brazilian blog post that aimed to show how easy it is to make it appear that conspiracy theories have merit. But most people skipped right past the disclaimer and focused only on the part that explored the conspiracy theory that Lavigne had died by suicide in 2003 after being unable to deal with the loss of her grandfather. As the conspiracy theory goes, Lavigne had since been replaced with Melissa Vandella, a doppelganger who'd been basking in her success ever since. Of course, none of this is true, as the disclaimer at the beginning of the blog post indicated. But when BuzzFeed published an article about the post, American fans quickly picked up on it and ran with the conspiracy theory again.
Lavigne initially ignored the whole thing, only addressing it in 2018 during an interview with Australian radio show KISS 1065 (via E! News). "Some people think that I'm not the real me, which is so weird! Like, why would they even think that?" she said. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2019, she finally put the rumors to bed, describing the conspiracy theory as "a dumb internet rumor," adding, "[I'm] flabbergasted that people bought into it. Isn't that so weird? It's so dumb. And I look the exact same."
Her third engagement ended in a breakup
When Avril Lavigne and fellow musician Mod Sun started working together on music for Lavigne's "Love Sux" album, there was a spark, and the two hit it off instantly. "I knew we had a very strong unstoppable connection from the first week of writing and working together in the studio. Immediately," Lavigne told People. "He made every day better. It was like I had known him forever. As time went on, things kept getting better, and it felt incredibly natural," she gushed. The two were soon head-over-heels in love, and when March 2022 rolled around, the rocker asked Lavigne to marry him while the two were vacationing in Paris.
Everything seemed perfect, but then rumors started swirling that all was not well with the couple in 2023, and in February of that same year, someone close to Lavigne confirmed to Us Weekly that she had broken off her engagement. Her ex's rep, however, told the outlet that "[they] were together and engaged as of three days ago when Mod left for tour so if anything has changed that's news to him." Ouch! Lavigne was seen having dinner with rapper Tyga the day before the news broke. The two were also spotted hugging during this outing, but a source assured the outlet that the two were "genuinely friends and nothing more." However, not long after, a source told People that Lavigne and Tyga were indeed dating, though they split after three months.