Ryan Anderson Speaks Out About Girlfriend Gia Allemand’s Death
The former "Bachelor" star attempted suicide and died last summer.
— -- Last summer, NBA player Ryan Anderson was devastated when his girlfriend, Gia Allemand, died days after attempting suicide.
Now, he's opening up about the experience.
"I can finally say after a long time of thinking that there’s no hope and there’s no future, I can see a hope and I can see a future," he told Sports Illustrated.
Allemand was 29 when she died days after she attempted suicide following a fight she'd had with her beau.
Now, Anderson, who discovered her body, said that he looks at her battle with depression as just that -- a battle -- and he never sees her suicide attempt as a selfish act.
"Anyone who knows Gia knows that selfish was the last thing she was," he said. "She would never want to cause anyone suffering. She just wanted to escape the pain."
More than a year after Allemand's death, the basketball player, who has maintained a relationship with Allemand's mother, is hoping that others can learn from the tragedy that he's had to endure. To that end, he's to start the Gia Allemand Foundation to help women who have endured bullying. He also recently took part in an 18-mile suicide awareness walk, filmed a short video for a suicide-prevention group and spoke at a women's shelter in Sacremento.
"If [Gia’s suicide] hadn’t happened to me, I’d walk into that room and I don’t relate to any of them, and they sure as heck don’t want to hear from me,” he said. "But now I have a story to tell."
Related Stories
ABC News Live