Singer-songwriter Coco Lee sent a tragic final message to her fans thanking them for her support before her death on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong-born star died aged 48 after attempting to take her own life over the weekend after living with depression for several years, her older sisters Carol and Nancy Lee said in a statement on Facebook and Instagram.
Lee had also been recovering from major surgery to correct a birth defect that had plagued her for years, writing that she had grappled with ‘life-changing hurdles’ in her final social media post before her death.
In a separate audio message posted on Sunday by verified Weibo account ‘China Wen Fan League’, Coco told her fans they were her ‘pillar of strength’ and that she was ‘working very hard’. She would go on to attempt to take her own life hours later.
She was in a coma before passing away on Wednesday.
Singer-songwriter Coco Lee (pictured in 2016) sent a tragic final message to her fans thanking them for her support before her death on Wednesday
As well as suffering from depression, Coco Lee was also recovering from major surgery on her leg and pelvis to fix a birth defect, which she posted about on social media earlier this year
‘Dear, I am CoCo. I feel everyone’s love and support and you are my pillar of strength,’ she is heard saying in the audio message, which has been shared widely on social media, according to Taiwan News.
‘I will keep striving. During this time, I hope you all are also healthy and happy. I miss everyone very much. I am working very hard. I am thinking of you all. I miss you all so much! Love you, love you.’
Coco then switched to English, saying: ‘Thank you so much for the gifts. Beautiful and very thoughtful. Love you guys.’
Fans noted that it sounds as if her voice is breaking from emotion in the recording, and expressed their sadness over the fact that a few hours later, she would go on to attempt suicide ultimately leading to her death on Wednesday.
In her final Instagram post back in December, she said life over the past year had seemed ‘unbearable’ at times, with her sisters saying she struggled with depression.
She was also recovering from major surgery on her leg and pelvis to fix a birth defect, which she posted about on social media earlier this year.
The surgery lasted two hours and left her needing to learn to walk again. Clips posted online showed her in a hospital bed and walking with a frame.
She had suffered from the injury all her life, with surgery when she was just two years old not fully fixing the issue. It left her more reliant on her right leg for support.
Her impressive stage performances masked the injury, but the problem worsened in October when she injured herself during a dance rehearsal, The Sun reports.
This led to the major surgery being undertaken in February.
The surgery lasted two hours and left her needing to learn to walk again. Clips posted online showed her in a hospital bed and walking with a frame
Coco Lee is seen in a hospital bed shortly after undergoing the surgery earlier this year
Coco revealed the extent of her health issues that month in a post on Facebook.
‘I was born with a defect in my left leg. When I was learning how to walk, my mom noticed that something wasn’t right and sent me to the hospital for surgery when I was just two years old,’ she wrote on February 23.
‘Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful. The doctor inserted a very thick metal rod through my left heel, and I had to wear a cast during that time, which made it very uncomfortable. This was torture to me as a child because I couldn’t move at all.’
She continued, saying she has ‘I’ve endured this pain for so many years and now its preventing me from living a normal life,’ adding that through surgery she was facing ‘my greatest challenge and biggest fear in my entire life.
‘I’ve never been afraid to take on any challenges because I would just take everything one step at a time. However, this time, I feel vulnerable. I’ve always felt like escaping, but this time, it’s inevitable,’ she wrote.
‘I will need to relearn how to walk. I hope that everyone will accompany me through this difficult journey. I need you more than never. You will always be in my heart and I will always love you. I am that great wall that will never fall!’
Coco Lee appears in a video detailing her recovery process, telling her fans: ‘Warrior baby! Female warrior.’
Coco Lee is seen learning to walk with a frame as she details her recovery from surgery
Coco’s two sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, announced her death on Facebook on Wednesday.
‘Although, Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her,’ the statement said.
‘On 2 July, she committed suicide at home and was sent to the hospital. Despite the best efforts of the hospital team to rescue and treat her from her coma, she finally passed away on 5 July, 2023,’ the statement said.
Lee’s career spanned around 30 years. Among her most notable performances were voicing of the female warrior Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of Disney’s ‘Mulan’ and performing the Oscar-nominated song ‘A Love Before Time’ from the film ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’
She was born in Hong Kong in 1975 and was the youngest of three children of a Hong Kong Cantonese mother and Malaysian father.
Lee was hugely popular in China and Taiwan, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and her death prompted an outpouring of grief in both and wall to wall news coverage in Taiwan.
One of the most read hashtags on her death generated 200 million readings on China’s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging site.
‘Will miss you forever. Miss your beautiful singing, your hearty laugh and your pretty smile,’ wrote one Chinese fan.
Lee’s father passed away before she was born, and by the age of 9 her mother had moved Lee and her sisters to the United States, to San Francisco.
After graduating high school in 1992, she was offered a recording contract in Hong Kong with Capital Artists, eventually leading her to depart from her studies at the University of California, Irvine, to focus on her music career.
Coco’s two sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, announced her death on Facebook on Wednesday
Lee, who moved to the United States as a youngster and went to school there, had a successful career in Asia as a pop singer in the 1990s and 2000s (pictured in 2003)
In 1996, Lee signed with Sony Music Entertainment and her debut album, ‘Coco Lee,’ became the best-selling album of that year in Asia.
It wasn’t long before Lee gained fans in both Asia and the United States, which began her path to new collaborations and English-language songs.
She recorded 18 studio albums and appeared in three films, most notably Lee Xin’s ‘Master of Everything’ and ‘No Tobacco’ by Stanley Kwan.
In 2011, Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, a Canadian businessman who is the former CEO of the Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung. He survives her, as do her sisters and two stepdaughters.
