Fleetwood Mac star’s cause of death revealed
New details have emerged regarding the cause of death of Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie.
McVie passed away at the age of 79 in November 2022, surrounded by her loved ones, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
As her family said at the time, “it is with a heavy heart we are informing you of Christine’s death.
“She passed away peacefully at hospital this morning, Wednesday, November 30, 2022, following a short illness. She was in the company of her family.”
And now, The Blast have revealed that the singer’s death certificate confirms that the cause of her death was an ischaemic stroke, with her cancer listed as the secondary cause.
McVie’s cancer was a “metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin”, meaning that the disease had spread throughout her body but the primary source or tumour could not be detected.
According to the Stroke Foundation, an ischaemic stroke “is the most common type of stroke”, caused by “the blood supply being blocked” and restricted from reaching the brain.
The death certificate - unveiled in court with documents filed to settle McVie’s estate - also noted that McVie suffered from “atrial fibrillation” (otherwise known as AFib), and is explained by the Heart Foundation as being “is a type of arrhythmia in which your heart beats irregularly and often fast.”
The star had been open about her health journey in the months prior to her passing, even telling Rolling Stone that “I’m in quite bad health. I’ve got a chronic back problem that debilitates me. I stand up to play the piano, so I don’t know if I could actually physically do it. What’s that saying? ‘The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak’.”
However, McVie’s friend and bandmate Stevie Nicks wrote - in the wake of McVie’s death - that she “didn’t even know she was ill”, sharing a handwritten statement on social media that read “a few hours ago I was told that my best friend in the whole world since the first day of 1975, had passed away.
“I didn't even know she was ill… until late Saturday night.
“I wanted to be in London; I wanted to get to London - but we were told to wait. So, since Saturday, one song has been swirling around in my head, over and over and over. I thought I might possibly get to sing it to her and so, I’m singing it to her now. I always knew I would need these words one day … it’s all I can do now.”
Images: Getty