Patton Oswalt discusses wife's death: 'It might have been an overdose'



Patton Oswalt has opened up about his wife Michelle McNamara's death at age 46 in April, telling the New York Times he suspects the anti-anxiety medication Xanax might have played a part in her passing.

"I have a feeling it might have been an overdose," Oswalt told the paper, noting that McNamara had taken Xanax before going to bed. "That's what the paramedics there were saying while I was screaming and throwing up."

The coroner has not yet declared the cause of McNamara's death, the Times reported.

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According to Oswalt, he had become concerned about his wife's health and encouraged her to "sleep until you wake up," at which point McNamara, a true-crime writer, took Xanax and went to bed.

The comedian recalled that, when he left a cup of coffee for her on a bedside table at 9:40 a.m., McNamara was snoring, but when he returned to their bedroom shortly before 1 p.m., she was no longer breathing. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

"I was literally blinking trying to get out of this," Oswalt said of her death.

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The comedian added that he turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism after McNamara's death, to no avail.

"I found out the hard way these past few months that alcohol really doesn't help," he told the paper.

A week after McNamara's death, the comedian paid tribute to his wife on Twitter, saying their 13 years together were "happily humbling" for him.

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The couple married in 2005 and had a daughter, Alice, together.

Read original story Patton Oswalt Discusses Wife's Death: 'It Might Have Been an Overdose' At TheWrap


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