“Breaking Bad” star RJ Mitte’s mom is opening up about the heartbreaking moment she found her son dead at age 34.
RJ, who died by suicide on Monday, had spent the previous weekend with family and friends, Dyna Mitte told NBC News in an interview published Thursday.
She recalled calling her son on the morning of his death, but didn’t think much of it when he didn’t answer, as he typically slept until noon.
“I called him at 11 [a.m.],” she recalled. “He didn’t answer, so I picked up lunch and went to take it to him, and that’s when I discovered him.”
Noting that her son did not seem to leave a note behind, she believes her son’s death may have been a decision made in the “spur of the moment.”
And while she was not aware of him experiencing mental health struggles, a close friend of RJ had confided in him about issues “that he was very hurt over.”
“For the last three months, I’d been offering for him to go to therapy, trying to get him to go there, but he was like, ‘No, I’ve got it. It’s OK. I’m handling it,” she recalled in the interview.
Dyna noted that if she could go back, she would have taken her son to see a therapist, even if she had to drag him there “screaming and yelling.”
“We all go through heartbreak in our life and we all deal with it differently,” she said. “If I had known anything and could have done anything different, I truly would have. I would have given my life for his life.”
During the interview, Dyna shared her hopes about helping others who are going through similar struggles by speaking publicly about her son’s death.
“If me speaking out today might save someone else from going through the same situation, because a mother should never have to find their child this way,” she said. “If I can say one person is helped, I think that’s what RJ would expect.”
RJ, who was described by his mom as a “special, special soul,” was best known for his role as Walter “Flynn” White Jr. on “Breaking Bad,” which she called an “incredible experience for [her] son.”
“He truly, truly loved each and every cast member, each and every crew member. I couldn’t have asked for him to learn from anyone better,” she said.
A representative for RJ confirmed to Page Six that his cause of death was suicide, while his manner of death remains undetermined pending an autopsy.
In the days after his death, several of RJ’s former “Breaking Bad” co-stars, most notably his on-screen parents, Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn, paid tribute to him.
Cranston, 70, shared a throwback photo with RJ on Instagram, expressing his “deep despair” over his death and saying it was “especially devastating” to learn that he had died by suicide.
“We were texting each other just a few weeks ago — figuring out when we could meet for lunch. I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future,” he wrote.
“But I do know that I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series, and after the spotlight on Breaking Bad dimmed … I’ll miss you, son.”
Meanwhile, Gunn, 58, told Us Weekly in a statement that she would “never forget meeting RJ when he was only 14 years old,” adding that she was “immediately struck by the depth and complexity of someone so young.”
“There truly are no words to express the heartbreak of a loss this profound, the loss of a beautiful young man who had such an impact upon this world, with still so much ahead of him,” she said in part.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
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