As the novel coronavirus has continued to rage through the United States,
millions have been left grieving the loss of beloved friends and family.
And even in Hollywood, several stars have also been personally affected by the pandemic.
These are the celebs who lost their loved ones to coronavirus.
Black Mirror actor Rory Kinnear shared the tragic story surrounding his sister's May 2020 death
at the age of 48, in a touching op-ed for The Guardian. Rory explained that his sister, Karina,
who was disabled, had dealt with chest infections for most of her adult life. Rory explained,
"She defied medicine, she defied doctors, she defied prognoses, she defied the capacity of
human endurance. And she would look at you and smile as if to say: 'Yep. I did it again.'"
"My mum's big drive, really, as a mother of a disabled child has been to give her a voice."
But the coronavirus proved to be too much for Karina. Rory said,
"It wasn't her 'underlying conditions.' Prior to her diagnosis,
she hadn't been in hospital for 18 months, an unusually care-free period for Karina."
The star and his family said their goodbyes to Karina through an iPad held by a nurse.
"The last person you see will be someone who loves you."
On July 3rd, 2020, UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov, announced that he lost his trainer and father,
Abdulmanap, to COVID-19. The fighter's manager told ESPN,
"We've lost our backbone. He was a father, coach,
brother, an icon. Things will never be the same without him."
According to Khabib's official site, his father was…
"One of the most famous and sought-after coaches in Russia,
who brought up a huge number of titled fighters."
Two months prior, Khabib had revealed that his father was in a medically-induced coma.
Unfortunately, the then-31-year-old star also
explained that COVID-19 had decimated his family. He said via ABC News,
"In my personal case, I've had more than 20 people sick from my family. More than 20 people
were lying in the ICUs. And many of them are no longer among us. Many acquaintances have died,
many parents of my relatives. Everybody is having a hard time dealing with it."
On June 15th, 2020, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar announced that her father had passed
away from complications due to COVID-19 at the age of 67. She said in a statement,
"Surely we belong to God and to Him shall we return. It is with tremendous sadness
and pain that I share that my father, Nur Omar Mohamed, passed away today due to complications
from COVID-19. No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew him."
According to The New York Times, Omar's father was a teacher in Somalia before fleeing with
his family during the country's civil war to a Kenyan refugee camp, where they spent four years.
He and his family sought asylum in the United States and eventually settled in Minneapolis
amid its large Somalian population. He was a constant presence during Omar's campaign.
"What we are fighting for is not for the few, but for the many."
In the span of a month, former NBA player Sebastian Telfair tragically lost two family
members to the coronavirus. According to the New York Post, Telfair's brother, Dan,
died at the age of 49. And his mother, Erica, died at 64,
after spending 38 days in the hospital. Telfair's half-brother, Jamel Thomas, told the outlet,
"It's been tough, but I'm just glad that they're both not suffering anymore.
Everybody's crying at home. Everybody is being safe, they're staying in.
There's nothing we can do. We can't go and console each other physically. But we do have
a group chat and a group FaceTime. We talk and cry through that. That's what we've been doing."
Telfair's mother reportedly had no underlying medical
conditions at the time of her death. Thomas said,
"She never drank, smoke or anything. She never did anything…She was just
a healthy person that…enjoyed food and family."
During a WhatsApp interview with British GQ in April 2020,
Nightcrawler and Rogue One actor Riz Ahmed revealed his family had
been tragically touched by the novel coronavirus. He messaged the outlet:
"Since we spoke I have lost two family members to Covid.
I just want to believe their deaths and all the others aren't for nothing."
Although Ahmed didn't specify which family members he had lost,
he made a plea to the general public, to strive to create a better future together, when he said,
"We have to, right now, lay the groundwork for a more compassionate society by trying to build
a more compassionate inner voice. We have to try to address all the programming in our mind
that tells us, 'You are what you produce,' that defines our worth in capitalist terms.
We need to really look at that. And if we can learn to sit with ourselves,
if we can realize how little we really need to be happy,
I think that's the essential building block for us to scale that to a fairer society."
On April 23rd, 2020, Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren announced that her brother had passed away.
"How ya doin'?"
"Good to see you brother."
The former presidential candidate wrote on Twitter,
"My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening.
He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military,
including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny,
a natural leader. What made him extra special was his smile, quick and crooked,
it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him."
The following month, Warren wrote an article for The Atlantic,
where she reflected on her brother's time in the hospital and her inability to be
with him during his final days because of safety protocols. She remembered,
"I called him every day for 11 days, and every day he would say, 'I'm just fine.' In fact, he said,
'I think I probably had it before and I'm just too tough and didn't even notice.'
And then he got sick, and then he died, by himself. That's the hard part, really hard
part. It's hard to process things like this because everything is happening at a distance.
And human beings, we're not set up for that. We're wired to be with each other. It makes it hard."
"Man, I don't wanna make jokes about this coronavirus."
On April 6th, 2020, Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" star Michael Che
announced he'd lost his grandmother to Covid. He wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post,
"Last night my grandmother passed away from the coronavirus. I'm doing ok,
considering. I'm obviously very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that
pain alone. But I'm also happy that she's not in pain anymore."
The comedian also expressed his frustrations at
the lack of information about COVID-19 at the time, adding,
"I don't know if I'll lose someone else to this virus. I don't even know if I'll be
lost to this virus. Who f---ing knows? I shouldn't curse. I'm just frustrated,
cause there's so much we still don't know about it. I'm just not willing to accept that
right now. F--- THAT. I need a better story. I know, I shouldn't curse, but I'm grieving."
As a tribute to his beloved grandmother, Che paid one month's rent for all those living
in her 160-unit public housing complex. He wrote in another since-deleted Instagram post,
"It's crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many
New Yorkers can't even work. I know that's just a drop in the bucket. So I really hope the city has
a better plan for debt forgiveness for all the people in public housing, AT THE VERY LEAST."
Minnesota Timberwolves star center Karl-Anthony Towns lost his mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns,
to coronavirus in April 2020. She was 58 years old. The team's official Twitter statement read:
"Jackie, as she was affectionately known among family and friends,
had been battling the virus for more than a month when she succumbed on April 13th.
Jackie was many things to many people, a wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, sister, aunt,
and friend. The matriarch of the Towns family, she was an incredible source of strength; a fiery,
caring, and extremely loving person, who touched everyone she met."
"Every day I just told her how much I love her."
Less than a month before his mother passed,
Towns uploaded an emotional video to YouTube informing his followers that
his mom had been put on a ventilator, and was in a medically-induced coma. He said in part,
"The disease needs not be taken lightly. Please protect your families, your loved ones, your
friends, yourself. Practice social distancing. Please don't be in places with a lot of people."
On March 15th, Towns made a $100,000 donation to the Mayo Clinic to help
develop a test to detect the virus that causes COVID-19. Towns tweeted:
"My hope is that we can fight this virus quicker and more efficiently by increasing
the testing capabilities and availability and Mayo Clinic's overall COVID-19 response."
The Mayo Clinic reported they were, quote, "blown away" by Towns' donation.
Superstore star Nico Santos nearly lost his mother to the novel coronavirus, but thankfully, she
eventually made a full recovery. Unfortunately, his stepfather wasn't as lucky. In a heartbreaking
post on Instagram, Santos announced his passing on March 29th, 2020, writing,
"My Tito Sonny passed away yesterday after losing his battle with COVID-19. He was a kind,
caring man. Friendly to a fault. He always greeted strangers walking past him with a
chipper 'Good Morning!' and a big smile. He had a great laugh that filled the room with joy."
The Crazy Rich Asians actor added that the loss of his stepfather had been a deep cut for the family,
noting that he felt, quote, "gutted" by not being able to be with him before he died. He said,
"I can't hold my mother as she mourns her husband.
I can't hug my brother as he contemplates a world without his father. I can't wipe away the
tears from my nephews' eyes as they wonder why their Lolo Sonny isn't here anymore."
Santos then thanked his fans for their outpouring of love for his family, adding,
"I hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. Rest In Peace Tito Sonny. I love you."
On April 27th, 2020, former Charmed star Holly Marie Combs revealed a devastating
loss while tweeting President Donald Trump about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Replying to a tweet in which Trump claimed he never called the pandemic a "hoax," Combs wrote,
"My grandfather died today. He voted for you. He believed you when you said this virus was no worse
than the flu. He believed every lie you muttered and sputtered. He died today from Covid-19
one day after his 66th wedding anniversary. You're a disgrace to the human race."
Needless to say, Combs came under fire from Trump supporters who pushed back on the TV star laying
all COVID-19 deaths at the president's feet. To that, she tweeted in response:
"Zero tolerance for Trumpers. Zero. Take it to someone else's timeline."
Our thoughts are with everyone as the U.S. and the world endure such devastating loss.