Reality TV Stars Who Died Tragically

Reality television has been ubiquitous for decades now, long enough for even the most clueless viewers to catch on to the fact there's not too much actual "reality" involved in most of these shows. But the people involved are still real, even if the scenes on screen are more scripted than advertised. Both while filming and long after their 15 minutes of fame have passed, these people have lives outside of the show. Sadly, things can go disturbingly badly for reality TV stars, and sometimes the characters who shared part of themselves with millions of viewers die tragically and far too soon.

When the deaths of these minor celebrities make the news, the juxtaposition between the promise of career success or finding true love or lives of adventure that was originally promised to them on the various TV shows they appeared on is always shocking. At least, compared to the reality of what life — and death — had in store for them instead. 

Here are just some of the reality TV stars who died tragically.

Steve Irwin became known around the world as "The Crocodile Hunter." As well as his educational TV show, Irwin ran his family zoo in Australia. He was famous for being able to tackle the most dangerous animals, something he started doing as a young child, so it was shocking when he died due to an attack by a normally docile animal: a stingray.

Cameraman Justin Lyons was there and filming Irwin for an upcoming program at the exact moment he was attacked by the stingray. "I had the camera on, I thought this is going to be a great shot, and all of sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds," Lyons told Australian morning show Studio 10 (via The Sydney Morning Herald). "He had a two-inch-wide injury over his heart with blood and fluid coming out of it  ... even if we had got him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn't have been able to save him. I was saying to him things like 'think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on,' and he calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying' and that was the last thing he said." Irwin was 44.

The tape was turned over to authorities. After the investigation into Irwin's death was completed, all but one copy of the tragic event was destroyed. That final recording was given to his widow, Terri, who subsequently chose to destroy it as well.

Shain Gandee was cast on the MTV reality show "Buckwild" after he took a producer to play around in a mudhole with some of his friends. By all accounts, what you saw was what you got with Gandee, who was a true child of West Virginia and didn't need to fake his outdoorsy persona at all. Even during production, he would go off and do his own thing, until producers insisted he needed to carry a cellphone for the first time in his life so they could contact him. When he was there, he was the cast member who came up with a lot of the situations that showed off the local lifestyle. The show got buzz before it even aired, and the first season was a success.

There would not be a second season. In April 2013, Gandee and two other men were discovered dead in his truck. It emerged that they had left a bar at 3 a.m., telling people they were going off-roading. Somehow, the truck got stuck in a mudhole and the exhaust was submerged, causing the vehicle to fill with poisonous carbon dioxide. All three men died; Gandee was 21 years old.

While some involved with the production believed that "Buckwild" could continue without their most vibrant cast member, the show was canceled. It was also revealed Gandee made hardly any money during his time on the show, and his family organized a "mud-run" event to raise enough money to pay for his funeral.

In 2014, Christina Grimmie was already on her way to a successful music career before her star turn on "The Voice." Back when YouTube was in its infancy, she gained millions of subscribers by posting videos of herself doing covers of pop songs. By 2011, she'd released her first EP, won an American Music Award, and went on tour with Selena Gomez. But it was her appearance on "The Voice," where she came in third, that brought her to a much larger group of fans. 

Tragically, one of those fans would take her life. After "The Voice," Grimmie continued to find success, touring with Rachel Platten and winning a Teen Choice Award in 2016. At a meet-and-greet after one of her own tour shows in June of that year, Kevin James Loibl, an obsessed fan who authorities believe came there specifically to kill her, approached the singer and opened fire. Grimmie's brother Marcus quickly tackled the shooter, but he died by suicide at that time. Grimmie had been shot multiple times in the head and chest. She was 22.

At a memorial service for his sister, Marcus said (via E! News), "All the rumors are true that when the gunman came ... her arms were open. That's how she treated everyone she knew, her arms were open for them." Using the proceeds of a posthumous single, the family set up a charity in Grimmie's name to support victims of gun violence.

Ben Watkins had dreams of a career in food. His goals seemed to be within reach, too, since as a child he was already working at his family's restaurant, Big Ben's Bodacious Barbecue & Deli, which was named after the boy. But when he was just 11 years old, Ben lost both his parents when his father killed his mother in a murder-suicide. Now being raised by his uncle and other family members, Ben rallied as only a child can, appearing on "MasterChef Junior" just a year later. The fan favorite made it into the top 18, crediting his late mother for his talent for baking.

But there was more tragedy in store for Ben. At age 13, he was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer called angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma. At the time, he was only one of six people on Earth with the diagnosis. He offered to waive medical privacy laws so his doctor could include certain details in a paper he wrote about the case, in the hopes it might help others with the condition.

Ben died in 2020, aged 14. "It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of Ben Watkins, a beloved member of the 'MasterChef Junior' family. Ben overcame so much in his life with a remarkably positive attitude. He was a tremendous role model for chefs of all ages and will be dearly missed by everyone at EndemolShine North America and Fox Entertainment," the production company told Us Weekly in a statement.

Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie on Discovery's "Deadliest Catch," was no stranger to health issues. The notoriously demanding job of a fisherman had taken its toll on his body, and he had already had several crushed discs in his back as well as a pulmonary embolism in 2008. Then, in 2010, he was discovered collapsed on his boat, having had a stroke. He was medivacked to a hospital, where he underwent surgery.

Despite the trauma, Harris seemed to get better at an astonishing rate, and he was well enough to worry about the show that made him famous. Cameraman Todd Stanley was summoned to Harris' side, and the captain "...scribbled on a piece of paper, 'Got to get the ending, ending to the story,'" Stanley told People. "I said, 'Do you want me filming?' He just looked at me with those blue eyes, man, and he was shaking his head yes, and shaking his hand with excitement." The events would eventually be shown to a sobbing audience of millions.

Harris recovered so well that the hospital was even planning on moving him out of Alaska and down to Seattle for further treatment, and the captain was demanding to know if he would be well enough to get back to fishing when the crabbing season started within barely eight months. But then Harris suddenly took a turn for the worse and died. He was 53.

The singer Jenni Rivera was known as the "diva de la banda." While she found her original success in her takes on traditional Mexican music — selling 20 million albums along the way — Rivera also had a thriving career in reality television. This included her role as a judge on "La Voz" (the Mexican version of "The Voice") as well as her own reality show "I Love Jenni." 

After performing a concert in December 2012, Rivera gave a press conference where she spoke about her positive outlook on life despite her recent separation from her husband: "I can't focus on the negative, because that will defeat you. That will destroy you ... The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up" (translated from Spanish by the Los Angeles Times). Rivera then boarded a private plane with six others in order to make a taping of "La Voz." But just minutes into the flight, the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. Rivera was 43.

In 2019, it was revealed that Rivera had been afraid she might die in 2012, but not in a plane crash. Less than six months before she died, Rivera recorded an interview with a Mexican radio DJ, in which she explained she had been getting death threats. These were not idle threats, either, with at least one being serious enough that the FBI got involved. But Rivera insisted she would not be frightened away from doing what she loved.

"American Idol" was a cultural phenomenon when it debuted in 2002. While winner Kelly Clarkson went on to huge fame, third-place finisher Nikki McKibbin told People that things went a bit differently for her: "Then the show blew up and became a big thing and before I knew it, I was on magazine covers and being recognized everywhere I went. It was a good thing, but obviously, my career never became what Kelly's was. Which is okay, but I was hoping that the exposure would be more for me." 

McKibbin did release an album in 2007, followed by a Christmas album. She also got to watch her son make it past the audition rounds on the same reality show 12 years after she did. Sadly, "Idol" was not her only reality show experience, as she went on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" in 2008. However, her death was totally unrelated to her past substance abuse issues.

McKibbin was 42 when she had a brain aneurysm, after which she was kept on life support for a period in order to fulfill her wish to be an organ donor. Referencing the singer who had once sent McKibbin flowers and a note when she was on "Idol," her husband Craig Sadler posted on Facebook, "You probably know she practically worshiped Stevie Nicks. Before they begin, they will play 'Landslide' for her one last time. If you are able, you can pause at 3:00 wherever you are and listen to it with her. She will know that you're sharing her farewell."

Ahmad "Real" Givens appeared on VH1's "I Love New York" in 2007 alongside his brother Kamal "Chance" Givens. The fan-favorite pair were given their own reality show the following year, creatively named "Real Chance of Love." While it only lasted two seasons, by 2013, Real had much bigger problems than a stalled TV career.

As he explained in a 2014 interview, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that had already spread to his liver. "I remember I was laying on the hospital bed and the doctor came in crying and when I saw her crying I knew it was something serious. My doctors thought I had, like, three days to live so they just zapped me with chemo. I left out of there with my veins burning and everything." 

Eventually, he needed surgery and radiation treatment as the cancer spread further, this time to his brain. Through it all, Real's motivation was giving his son a different life than the one he had experienced as a child. "I grew up in a neighborhood where African-American boys didn't have their fathers in the house and I always told myself, 'When I get married one day and have kids, [I'm] going to be there for my kids and that's a vow that I made and that's a vow that I plan on keeping and that's what keeps me fighting." Tragically, Real died in 2015. He was 33.

Jael Strauss competed on the 8th season of "America's Next Top Model," where she made it to the finals and finished sixth. However, her budding modeling career was derailed by addiction issues. In 2013, Strauss' family got Dr. Phil to stage a televised intervention, which was not done in the most caring or effective manner. Despite the coarse way she was forced to enter treatment, Strauss celebrated her continued sobriety on her Instagram in 2018, writing: "Today I have 5 years sober. Good God! I know a few things to be true: Miracles are real, Recovery is possible for everyone no matter how far gone you think you are, We are never too broken to be put back together."

Mere months later, Strauss posted a much more painful update on her Facebook page: "I was gonna write some long thing but some of you guys deserve to know. On October 2nd I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. It has aggressively spread throughout my body and is incurable. With treatment, it may prolong my life longer than the 'few months' doctors said I could make it. I don't want to die. I need another one of those miracles that I got back in 2013."

While Strauss began chemotherapy, she soon entered hospice, still posting about her journey. She died just two months after announcing her diagnosis. There was an outpouring of support from "ANTM" alums, as well as host Tyra Banks.

In 2015, a helicopter crashed in Argentina, killing all 10 people onboard. They were filming a French reality show called "Dropped," which was similar to the U.S. series "Survivor." As the episodes hadn't aired, the three participants killed in the crash were not yet reality stars, but they were stars in their home country for other reasons: 25-year-old Camille Muffat (pictured) won two Olympic medals in swimming; 28-year-old boxer Alexis Vastine had a bronze Olympic medal, and 57-year-old Florence Arthaud was a decorated sailor. The French sporting world was heartbroken. 

Despite the tragedy, Muffat's boyfriend, William Forgues, told Le Parisien (via Time), "She was very happy and it was 100% her choice to be there. She loved that kind of program."

What Muffat, Vastine, and Arthaud might not have known was how little the company behind the show cared about them. It was later revealed that the production company had been fined hundreds of times for cutting corners and putting contestants in danger, with one unnamed employee admitting to Le Point (via Time), "If we scrupulously respect work rights, shooting costs would explode. Safety is not a major issue for the production company." Nor was this the first time someone had died on the set of one of the company's reality shows. Two years before, on a different "Survivor"-like program, a contestant died from a heart attack after medical treatment was allegedly delayed for being too expensive.