Celebrity Chef Took Her Own Life

UPDATE Jun 21, 2025 9:30 AM CDT

The death of celebrity chef Anne Burrell last month has been ruled a suicide, reports the New York Times. The chief medical examiner's office in New York City listed the 55-year-old's cause of death as "acute intoxication due to the combined effects of diphenhydramine, ethanol, cetirizine, and amphetamine." A spokesperson for the husband of the Food Network star declined to comment.

Jun 21, 2025 9:30 AM CDT

As the tributes continue to pour in for Anne Burrell, who died suddenly Tuesday at her New York home at the age of 55, law enforcement sources tell TMZ that the NYPD probe around the Food Network star's death may be centering on a possible drug overdose. Those sources say that police found "a bunch" of pills near the top chef's body, discovered by husband Stuart Claxton in the shower. The New York Times backs up TMZ's reporting, citing an internal police document that read that Burrell was "discovered in the shower unconscious and unresponsive surrounded by approximately (100) assorted pills."

On Friday, a spokesperson for New York City's medical examiner said that they've finished an autopsy on Burrell, but that any discoveries on her cause of death or the manner in which she'd died were still to come. People, meanwhile, dives more into some life changes Burrell had been making before her death, including taking improv classes and "a few other things that ... I'm not quite ready to share yet." "I can cook, yes, I can do TV, but also, like, what else?" she told actor Tori Spelling during a March podcast. "I've got more to do in my life, I feel like." (If you or someone you know is in crisis, help is available by calling or texting the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.)