The Tragedy Of Kathy Griffin's Life Has Been Unbearably Sad

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The following article contains mentions of bulimia, child sexual abuse, addiction, PTSD, and attempted suicide.

Love her or hate her, the fierce and sharp-tongued Kathy Griffin has proven herself to be one of Hollywood's most buzzed-about comedians, enjoying a decades-spanning career in the entertainment industry. Griffin has been the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards thanks to her successful reality series "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List." She has also released six comedy albums and appeared in TV shows like "Suddenly Susan," "Hollywood Squares," and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Both adored and jeered for her candid observations and unapologetic attitude towards all things pop culture, Griffin has crafted her own unique brand of humor and has never had trouble mocking both her peers and herself.

Though Griffin often seems unflappable and takes her many controversies in stride, the comedian has experienced an overwhelming amount of trauma and chaos throughout her life, and it's no wonder she's built up such a tough exterior. Not only has Griffin survived her many devastating health hurdles, a tumultuous childhood, and a full-blown investigation by the Justice Department, but she has always stayed true to herself every step of the way, laughing through the pain. 

Born on November 4, 1960 in Oak Park, Illinois, Kathy Griffin was the youngest of five in a very Catholic family. The future comedian opened up about her upbringing on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, saying she was raised by two "total Irish alcoholics." After her siblings left home, Griffin spent hours home alone and subsequently developed bulimia as a teenager, something she continued to struggle with into her adult years and Hollywood crossover.

Griffin opened up about her journey with her eating disorder when she appeared on "The Rosie Show" in 2012. "My form of bulimia was I would binge, and then I would starve myself," she told Rosie O'Donnell. "I wanted to stop it more than anything. I mean, I thought, 'This is it for me. This is the big one.'" During production of the sitcom "Suddenly Susan" in the late '90s, she became obsessed with her weight and felt pressured to stay slim, even taking speed for two weeks in order to shed pounds.

"I remember the first wardrobe person who Brooke Shields, bless her heart, got fired, because she would look at me and I'll never forget, day after day, saying 'Take it off. Take it off. They don't make that in a six,'" Griffin told O'Donnell. "I was a six. But I wasn't a four or a two." Griffin also revealed in "Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin" that she has continued to deal with food issues but has remained diligent in managing them. 

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Kathy Griffin has undergone multiple plastic surgeries throughout the years, and the comedian has never shied away from detailing her experiences going under the knife. One such trip to the plastic surgeon occurred in 1999, when she nearly died after having liposuction. Griffin discussed the faulty procedure in her memoir, sharing a gruesome photo of the surgery results and describing it as "so heinous you can't believe it. And it's a picture of my botched liposuction that looks like a CSI crime scene photo."

In the revealing book, Griffin also detailed how she had first gotten plastic surgery at just 26 after being convinced she needed a nose job, while also opening up about her obsession with beauty. "What I can't figure out is why I wasted time worrying about my looks. I am a comedian. I'm not on the runway in Milan," she wrote in the memoir. "Believe it or not, people don't come to see me really thinking I'm going to look like Jenifer Aniston."

Griffin hoped to encourage other women to think deeply before having any plastic surgery done and viewed her botched liposuction procedure as a cautionary tale for others. "I want women to know that this is what lipo looks like. Like, are you sure you don't want to just work out a little more," she further said. The terrifying surgery left quite an impact on her, though she continued to have plastic surgery procedures done after the publication of the book. 

Kathy Griffin has experienced immense loss in her personal life, as her father, John, passed away in 2007 from heart failure. Additionally, two of her siblings died from cancer within a few short years of each other. Griffin's beloved brother, Gary, died from esophageal cancer in 2014 at 63, confirming his death in a now-deleted Instagram post. "This AM my brave brother Gary Griffin passed away in palliative care after a brutal struggle [with] cancer," she wrote (via People). "Oh & he was funny as s—."

In September 2017, her sister Joyce died from an undisclosed cancer. The stand-up comedian shaved her head in solidarity in July of that year, with the poignant moment being shared on X, formerly Twitter. A series of photos was featured on the platform, including one of Griffin happily holding her bald head, and another of her mother, Maggie, resting her hand on Griffin's head as she covered her own mouth in surprise.

Griffin tweeted about Joyce's tragic death at 65, and uploaded an uplifting video of her sister in her hospital room enjoying a live musical performance, writing, "My sister Joyce passed away peacefully last night. Check out this beautiful moment." At the end of the touching clip, a moving message read, "This is where she always wanted to be ... & now she's having a Mai Tai on the beach in heaven." Griffin also encouraged others to donate to the American Cancer Society. 

Kathy Griffin has opened up about the childhood trauma she suffered at the hands of her older brother Kenneth, whom she said on an episode of her YouTube series, "Talk Your Head Off," was a drug addict and struggled with mental health issues throughout most of his life. "He was a crack addict. He lived on the streets, was extremely violent," she claimed. Kenneth — who died in 2001 — was nearly 20 years older than Griffin, who made disturbing allegations against him in her memoir before further opening up about her brother's inappropriate behavior towards her on "The Tyra Show" in 2009.

"He used to do stuff like when I was ... 6, 7 years old, he would crawl into bed with me and whisper sweet nothings in my ear, and stuff that was creepy," Griffin told host Tyra Banks (via YouTube). "Look, there are many, many, many women who had a much more difficult time than I did, but ... if you walked in and you saw a 30-year-old guy in bed with a 7-year-old whispering sweet nothings in her ear? No." In her YouTube video, Griffin also referred to her brother as a "pedophile," whom she claimed was molesting children. "Let me tell you something," she continued. "Having your oldest brother be a pedophile is something that you don't ever grow out of."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

In 2017, Kathy Griffin sparked major public backlash when she posted a photo of herself holding a bloody mask resembling President Donald Trump. The Emmy-winner intended for the image to be satirical, though she later took the post down and issued a public apology. What ensued was a media bloodbath, with Griffin being both put on the No Fly List and swiftly investigated by the Justice Department for conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.

The public brutally condemned the comedian; she was fired from her New Year's Eve hosting gig for CNN, and her co-host Anderson Cooper even ended his friendship with Griffin over the controversial Trump photo. She lost numerous endorsements, received death threats, and had many of her stand-up tour dates canceled, finding herself a social pariah in the country. However, she ultimately retracted her apology – Griffin actually doubled down on the anti-Trump moment, despite it leaving the president's son, Baron, disturbed. 

"Oh, I think I'm uncanceled, which is a miracle to me because I didn't think I would ever be uncanceled," she told WUSF, noting that she was blacklisted from the industry for seven years until she came out with her 2025 special, "Kathy Griffin My Life on the PTSD List." The defiant Griffin added, "People still define me by it. Now, I really own it, and I absolutely lean into it, because I was right, and I was ahead of my time." 

After her career was nearly destroyed as a result of the bloody Trump photo, Kathy Griffin fell into a deep depression and developed a dependency to painkillers, an addiction that led her to attempt suicide. Griffin shared intimate details about her addiction and mental health in a 2021 interview for "Nightline." "I started thinking about suicide more and more as I got into the pill addiction, and it became almost an obsessive thought," she told journalist Juju Chang. "I started really convincing myself it was a good decision."

"I got my living revocable trust in order," she added in her interview. "I had all my ducks in a row. I wrote the note, the whole thing. And I just thought, 'I'll just take a bunch of pills, and I will just go to sleep.'" Following the public blowback, Griffin tried to take her own life, and after confessing her attempt to her doctors, she was admitted to the psychiatric ward. She credited her then-husband Randy Bick and her physicians with saving her life and getting her back on track, and she has been in recovery since 2020.

Griffin joined a 12-step program and she celebrated five years of sobriety in June 2025. "I go to AA meetings, and I go to women's only meetings because I don't want to start sleeping with guys at the meetings, and I don't trust myself," she joked to People. "So many of my newer friends since the Trump scandal are from the 12-step program." 

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

Kathy Griffin suffered yet another heartbreaking blow and was left emotionally devastated when her beloved mother, Maggie, passed away on March 17, 2020, just months shy of her centennial birthday. Maggie frequently appeared in Griffin's TV projects including "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List." But in 2019, the comedian revealed that her mother had been diagnosed with dementia in an emotional X post.

"As heartbreaking as this is, I feel the need to share some important info about my mom Maggie. I've always been honest with you all, but this one is really hard," she wrote while sharing a photo of the two lying together in bed. "The pic below, taken in September, was the last time I was able to have a proper/coherent conversation with her." Griffin followed up the post with another tweet that expressed how swiftly her mother's dementia had progressed, while acknowledging how difficult witnessing a parent's mental decline is for their children.

Just a little over a year after Griffin announced her mother's dementia, Maggie died at 99, leaving her daughter grief-stricken. Griffin was open about how heartbreaking it was to see Maggie decline, since the two had been incredibly close — plus, her mother's death came on the heels of her addiction to painkillers. The comic shared a touching tribute to Maggie on X, confessing in the post, "I am gutted. My best friend. I'm shaking. I won't ever be prepared." 

In August 2021, Kathy Griffin shockingly announced that she had been diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer despite never having smoked, revealing the unfortunate news in an Instagram post. "I've got to tell you guys something. I have cancer," she penned. "I'm about to go into surgery to have half of my left lung removed. Yes, I have lung cancer even though I've never smoked!" Griffin further explained that her doctors were "very optimistic," and she successfully underwent surgery to remove part of her lung later that month.

The Hollywood staple later shared her theory that her cancer may have been caused by radon poisoning, as she responded in an X thread (via Newsweek) that her doctors suggested that the naturally occurring toxic gas could be the culprit. Griffin provided an update on her health following the surgery in a lengthy post on Instagram, in which she stated, "With over a year clean and drug free, I know I can do this and anything I want without those devil pills. Y'know what? I fear drugs and addiction more than I fear cancer. So, I think I'll be ok."

Griffin was right to be optimistic about her recovery, as she officially declared she was cancer-free in November 2021 during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" While on the show, she also announced that she had tied the knot with her longtime partner, and now ex-husband, Randy Bick.

As if losing her mother and receiving a cancer diagnosis weren't devastating enough, Kathy Griffin also had to deal with a painful separation in 2023. The TV star filed for divorce from her husband, Randy Bick, after nearly three years of marriage. This was the latter of Griffin's two divorces – she was previously married to Matthew Moline from 2001 to 2006.

Griffin told People that her divorce was more difficult to cope with than her lung cancer diagnosis, also opening up about how challenging the dissolution of her marriage truly was after everything else she had experienced. She and Bick first started dating in 2011 and married on January 1, 2020, in a ceremony officiated by Hollywood legend Lily Tomlin. Their divorce was finalized in 2025. "My divorce took me out," Griffin confessed to the outlet.

"I'm not going to lie. Some people are like, 'I was glad I got rid of them, and I've never felt better,'" Griffin began. "I was down for the count. It was harder than cancer." Though her divorce broke her heart, Griffin was able to keep her trademark humor when it came to dipping her toe back into the dating pool. "I went on a date with a guy who told me if he wanted to, he could kill me with his thumb in under two seconds," she said. "Welcome to dating over 60." 

After getting an MRI done in 2023, Kathy Griffin took to TikTok to discuss the results of her scan, which revealed that she had been diagnosed with an extreme case of complex PTSD. "Let's talk about PTSD. Never talked about it publicly," she began in her video. "You can laugh or whatever, but I've been diagnosed with complex PTSD, and they call it an extreme case ... If any of you know my story, you'll understand that this really started for me about five-and-a-half years ago. Wink," the comedian stated, likely alluding to her 2017 Donald Trump controversy. She also added that hat her stage 1 lung cancer diagnosis also contributed to her diagnosis.

She previously hinted at getting an MRI on Easter Sunday in 2023 in an Instagram post, sharing a photo of herself wrapped up in a blanket while wearing a mask outside of the hospital room. In a 2025 Threads post, Griffin revealed that she was using EMDR therapy, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is a PTSD treatment technique that stands for "eye movement desensitization and reprocessing." It involves rapidly moving one's eyes as they work through their trauma. "I love EMDR," Griffin wrote. "I think it's very effective."

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.