Patton Oswalt Recalls the Day His Wife, Michelle McNamara, Died
“The worst is when I told my daughter the next day," he said.
— -- Patton Oswalt's wife, crime writer Michelle McNamara, died suddenly in April, and today The New York Times published an interview in which the comedian spoke about that painful time.
Explaining that McNamara, 46, had been anxiously working on a new book, Oswalt, who was concerned for her health, told the newspaper that he'd suggested she "sleep until you wake up."
According to Oswalt, on April 21, McNamara took a Xanax and went to bed. The next morning, she was still snoring at 9:40 a.m., but two hours later, when Oswalt checked on her again, he discovered that she was not breathing.
She was pronounced dead by the paramedics. The coroner has yet to release a cause of death.
“I have a feeling it might have been an overdose,” Oswalt told The Times, noting that she took Xanax. “That’s what the paramedics there were saying while I was screaming and throwing up.”
Oswalt, 47, married McNamara in 2005, and they welcomed their daughter Alice in 2009. The actor said that the day McNamara died was the second-worst day of his life, with the worst being "when I told my daughter the next day." Oswalt said that as Alice came to terms with what was happening, she brought up "Inside Out," the Pixar film in which emotions are portrayed by individual characters.
"I guess Sadness is doing her job right now,” she said, according to Oswalt.
Oswalt, who has returned to doing stand-up, is working with a researcher and a journalist to finish his late wife's book, which focused on the Golden State Killer. He's also dedicated to helping his daughter remember her mother. Every night, he and Alice write down three things they remember about her.
"It keeps this living portrait of her," he said.