Lisa Vanderpump says brother’s death was accidental, not suicide
Lisa Vanderpump said her brother Mark Vanderpump's death in 2018 was accidental, not intentional. lisa vanderpump framed it as a cry for help that went horribly wrong, even though a coroner later classed the death as suicide.
Mark was found unresponsive in his home in Gloucestershire on April 30, 2018. An inquest found he was surrounded by tablets and whiskey, and he died soon after being taken to hospital from drug toxicity.
Lisa Vanderpump and the RHOBH statement
Lisa said on an episode of RHOBH, “I know my brother well enough to know my brother didn’t mean to do this.” She also said, “It was a cry for help that went horribly wrong. There’s a lot of people who say taking a life is selfish, [but] I’ve never felt that.”
She had already said in a statement after his death, “This has come as a shock to us all. My brother and I had connected the day before this tragedy and I was completely unprepared for this. He was my only sibling and I am shocked and saddened by his passing. I am trying to be supportive to his two young sons that he has left behind, and help them get through this tragedy.”
Gloucestershire inquest findings
The coroner later classed Mark’s death as suicide and cited goodbye messages he sent to loved ones, along with a previous suicide attempt earlier in December. That ruling sits at the center of the family divide: Lisa publicly read the death as accidental, while the formal finding treated it as deliberate.
For Sam Vanderpump, that divide has been personal for years. He said, “From age 21 to 27, I didn’t think I spoke to anyone about it. We just didn’t. It was just too raw because of the manner in which he went. It was a really, really hard thing to deal with and the easiest way to deal with it was to block it out. That’s the way some people deal with trauma. It did get me through the first six years after he passed.”
Sam Vanderpump and Marmaduke
Sam later said he named his son Marmaduke in memory of his father. “It means quite a lot to me to constantly have another little reminder that my dad was here; it’s about trying to remember your loved ones as much as you can in as many ways as possible. I can already see features of my dad in him. Hopefully one day he will ask about his grandfather because it’s hard for me to accept he never got to meet him.”
That is the practical end of the story now: Lisa’s account remains the emotional one she chose to tell, while the coroner’s ruling stays the formal record. Sam’s comments show the death still shapes the family in ways that are visible, specific, and still being carried forward.
