Darius Campbell Danesh’s girlfriend Lauren Cheek has revealed that the star was suffering from an undiagnosed heart problem before his death.
The former Pop Idol star was found dead in his US apartment, in Rochester, Minnesota, last August at the age of 41.
Danesh’s autopsy documents noted “toxic effects of chloroethane” as well as “suffocation” as having led to his death, which was ruled an accident.
However, Cheek has disputed the autopsy and said the Scottish star had an undetected heart issue, explaining how the organ had swollen to twice its normal size.
She told The Sun: “Darius was living with this heart condition that he didn’t know he had.
“His mum told me they only found out after they did the autopsy. His heart was twice the size it was supposed to be, which was fitting, because that is genuinely how he was – he had so much love.
“That’s what killed him – the substance mixed with his heart and he couldn’t take it.”
The autopsy also found that the Colourblind singer was living with a broken neck following a car crash he had with his actor friend Gerard Butler in 2010.
Months after the accident, he spoke to Hello! magazine about the crash in which he had been a passenger in a Porsche when it hit a wall at 70mph after skidding on oil during a holiday in Spain.
According to Cheek, Danesh “refused to get help or complain about it” and used chloroethane “because he was in so much pain and he didn’t want to take pills, not even aspirin”.
She told the outlet: “I don’t think it ever fully healed and then he rebroke it because he got hit by a car in London a year or two before he died when he was riding a bike.”
The Scottish singer-songwriter and actor – who was known as Darius Danesh when he made his first bid for fame in ITV show Popstars in 2001 – also appeared on the first Pop Idol, which was won by Will Young.
After Pop Idol, Campbell Danesh turned down Simon Cowell’s offer of a record deal and signed with producer Steve Lillywhite, whose credits include U2 and the Rolling Stones.
He went on to forge a successful stage career, appearing in Chicago as Billy Flynn in two runs of the production, as well as Guys And Dolls, Gone With The Wind and more in the West End.
