Since the death of hip-hop mogul Chris Lighty, the hip-hop community has been in deep mourning over the superstar manager, who shot himself last week outside of his Bronx, N.Y., home. In the wake of his death, many have been trying to solve the mystery of Lighty’s shocking suicide. Now, Lighty’s estranged wife, Veronica Lighty, has provided some answers about her husband’s death.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Veronica refuted claims that Lighty shot himself over an argument they had during his last hours of life.
“My husband was too smart of a man. He was a genius. No smart man is going to leave his children for fighting with his wife,” she explained in her first public comments about Lighty’s death. “That makes absolutely no sense.”
“We had a passionate relationship. We fought all the time,” she added.
Reports claimed that the founder and chief of Violator Entertainment had been swamped with a $5 million IRS debt. His personal life was further rocked when his wife filed for divorce last year.
But Veronica, the mother of two of Lighty’s six kids, explained that her husband had worked off his debt and that their relationship was on the mend.
“I had filed for divorce last year, but retracted it,” two days before Father’s Day, she said. “That was my gift to him.”
“We were not in debt,” she said, also noting that she and Lighty sold their Chelsea apartment for $5.6 million and moved into their lavish Riverdale townhouse in the Bronx.
The Associated Press reported that Lighty used the money from his apartment sale to pay off most of his debt, but he still owed more than $330,000 in state and federal taxes. Lighty was also sued by a bank in April for being overdrawn by $53,584.
However, Veronica remained tight-lipped about her husband’s financial woes.
“Chris had a lot of weight on his shoulders,” she said.
Veronica ended the interview by speaking about the love she shared with her husband and asked that he be left to die in peace.
“My husband was obsessed and adored me,” she said. “He was one of the most beautiful people that I have ever met in my life.
“Let him die proud, at peace because that’s what he needed and that’s what he wanted,” she added. “He just wanted peace and he wanted to relieve all that stress.”
Sadly, Veronica isn’t alone in her tragic story. Check out some other hip-hop widows below. –nicholas robinson
