'Bachelor' Contestant Lex McAllister Dead in Apparent Suicide
Former Bachelor contestant Lex McAllister is dead, and authorities believe it to be a suicide, Columbus, Ohio, police confirmed to ET on Tuesday.
Police received a 911 call on Saturday, saying McAllister apparently overdosed on prescription pills. She was taken to the hospital in stable condition, but died on Tuesday morning when her health took a turn for the worse.
She was 31 years old.
“In the short time that we knew Lex, she was a lovely person inside and out. She will be missed by the entire Bachelor family, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends," the Bachelor family said in a statement to ET.
A source tells ET McAllister suffered from bipolar disorder. She also hadn't spoken to many people from the show in the past six months, and recently became divorced, the source added.
According to her Instagram, McAllister was looking forward to a more positive 2016.
"I so appreciate the amount of laughter, fun, goofiness and love I've been given," she posted less than two months ago alongside a collage of happy photos. "Thank you for my family, for my friends and for the many experiences I've had in just 31 years of life. Thank you God for cleaning my life of those who take but do not give, those who throw stones and those who have nothing to offer, but their own grief and angst. I look forward to the new people, places and things just around the corner. #thankyou #lifeisgood #2016 #byefelicia."
McAllister appeared on The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love in 2010, which featured pilot Jake Pavelka. She was eliminated after the first week.
Sadly, this isn't the first tragedy to hit season 14 of The Bachelor. In 2013, contestant Gia Allemand died after she hanged herself in her New Orleans home. She was 29 years old.
"Lex was a great person, very outgoing and charismatic," Bachelorette alum Jesse Csincsak tells ET, also sharing a pic of him alongside McAllister and Allemand (farthest left) which was taken in the spring of 2010. "Everyone who met her would have said the same. I still can't believe she is gone. She will be truly missed."
