SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 10, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Heather B. Armstrong, the pioneering mommy blogger known to her online fans as Dooce, has died at age 47.
Boyfriend Pete Ashdown said in an interview with the Associated Press that Armstrong’s cause of death was suicide. He also reportedly said she had been sober for more than 18 months, but had recently relapsed. He found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City residence, he told AP.
Armstrong, whose birth name was Hamilton, was raised in Nashville as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and graduated from Brigham Young University, according to her Wikipedia biography. On her Dooce website, Armstrong links to the Wikipedia bio as one place people could visit to learn more about her.
After graduation, she left the church and moved to Los Angeles for work. She married a web designer, Jon Armstrong, and returned to Salt Lake City to work as a consultant and designer, the biography says. She started her blog in 2001, and reportedly lost her job after coworkers discovered she was writing about them.
The blog name, Dooce, was reportedly inspired by her inability to spell the word “Dude” during online chats.
By 2004, Dooce had 8.5 million viewers a month, and was making more than $100,000 from Dooce banner ads. In 2009, she was among 30 honorees on Forbes magazine’s “Most Influential Women in Media” list.
The Armstrongs divorced in 2012, and her social media influence began to decline as she battled depression. She posted less and lowered her profile until 2017, when she found an experimental treatment that worked for her.
Armstrong is survived by two daughters, ages 14 and 19.
Ashdown posted about Armstrong on the Dooce Instagram page, saying “Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 – May 9, 2023. ‘It takes an ocean not to break.’ Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else.”
The National Suicide Lifeline can be reached by calling 988.
