NEW YORK (AP) – Pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, who opened up about her struggles as a mother and her battle with depression and alcoholism on her website Dooce.com and on social media, has died at the age of 47.
Armstrong died by suicide, her boyfriend Pete Ashdown told The Associated Press and said he found her at her Salt Lake City home Tuesday night.
Ashdown said Armstrong had been sober for over 18 months but had recently relapsed. He did not give any further details.
Armstrong, who had two children with her former husband and business partner Jon Armstrong, founded Dooce in 2001 and has built a lucrative career from it. She was one of the first and most popular mom bloggers, writing openly about her children, relationships, and other challenges.
She has capitalized on her successes with blogging, on Instagram and elsewhere in book deals, and released her memoir, It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown and a Much Needed Margarita, in 2009.
Armstrong has appeared on Oprah and was included in Forbes list of the most influential women in media.
In 2012, the Armstrongs announced their split. They divorced later that year. Almost six years ago, she began dating Ashdown, a former US Senate nominee. They lived with Armstrong’s daughters, 19-year-old Leta and 13-year-old Marlo.