Chester Bennington’s teenage son Tyler has taken to TikTok to shut down conspiracy theories surrounding his dad’s death.
Tyler Lee Bennington, who is now 17 years old, uses his TikTok account to raise awareness about depression and advocate for mental health.
Chester’s widow Talinda is also involved in mental health advocacy - launching the 320 Changes Direction initiative following Chester’s death, to help support those going through mental health struggles and to help break the stigma surrounding depression and addiction.
On what would’ve been Chester’s 47th birthday last month, Tyler posted a video on TikTok to honour his late great father, which said, “mental health is just as important as anything else,” with the hashtags “f**k depression”, “make Chester proud” and “suicide prevention awareness”.
One user commented on that video saying, “your dad didn’t kill himself… he was doing good in this world and they didn’t like [it],” and Tyler responded to the claim in another video.
In the response video, Tyler says “This is the bullshit I will not be dealing with on my page. This person is getting blocked. I’m a child, this is inappropriate to comment on my post or anybody’s post for that matter.”
“There’s no evidence to any of these theories that have been made. These are all just vain attempts to sensationalise and make what really is a tragedy, a big story.”
Tyler ended the video saying, “Get a life man, thanks.”
In the caption, he wrote:
“I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour about me, my family or any fan on my page. It pains me to know that there are still people in the world who listen to this attention seeking slander. This is the only video I will post like this. For any other comments like this, I reserve the right to mock and ridicule you back, before blocking you.”
“Thank you to everyone who has left supporting and kind comments. You are truly kind people,” he added.
Chester took his own life in 2017 after battling with mental health issues. If you or someone you know is struggling, check out a bunch of resources that can help here.
