The devastated girlfriend of Darius Campbell Danesh has paid a moving and tender tribute to the tragic Popstars singer.
Lauren Cheek posted beautiful photos of them hugging and kissing in California and at Edinburgh Castle.
The US businesswoman, who runs a creative agency for women, called Darius: “My best friend, my love, my soulmate – and now my angel.”
She said: “Nothing can put into words the pain and shock I’m feeling without you. It still just doesn’t feel real. I love you forever & ever.”
Darius was found dead in an apartment near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, US, on August 11, aged 41.
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Close pal Chris Cochran, who spoke daily to the star, said Darius had felt the same way about Lauren.
Chris, 60, said: “He was enjoying a relationship with an old friend that he started dating again. He wasn’t depressed. He was happy. Everything was going well.”
In a message to Chris in July, he described Lauren as “the angel in my life… my love, the woman I listen to and trust”.
Chris was coaching Darius on breath work to cope with the chronic neck pain he suffered because of a car crash in 2010.
Tests revealed the star died from inhalation of the anaesthetic chloroethane – sometimes used as a recreational drug.
Chris, one of the last people to speak to Darius, said: “I feel like he’s being misrepresented. He wasn’t a drug abuser. He was a wonderful human being who wanted to change the world.”
In 2015, Darius told fans he had been put into a coma after contracting meningitis by drinking water from a Thames sewage outlet to plug charity Fresh2o after mistakenly drinking from a bottle without a water filter attached.
He also suffered a cerebral oedema – swelling of his brain – and his immune system was left weakened.
The Colourblind singer was married to Canadian actress and model Natasha Henstridge, 48, from 2011 to 2018. He also dated models Jacqui Ainsley, 40, now Guy Ritchie’s wife, and Claire Johnson, 53, the ex of Phones4U billionaire John Caudwell, 70.
Chris said: “I lost a dear friend and the world lost a great man. He was greatly interested in my work and wanted to make a documentary about me. “
“I was teaching him about how to breathe and channel that energy.”
