Luke Bryan is setting the record straight about the “misinformation” surrounding his sister Kelly Bryan‘s unexpected death in 2007. The country star opened up about the tragedy during a recent episode of “All There Is with Anderson Cooper,” revealing details that have long been speculated by fans.
“I’ve never really explained what happened to my sister,” Luke said. “There’s some misinformation out there on the internet, and I think some people kind of wonder what happened and think that we’ve tried to cover it up.”
Bryan disclosed that Kelly’s cause of death was attributed to sudden death syndrome.
“But there is a very, very small percentage of people that die for no reason in the world,” he explained. “And it’s called sudden death syndrome and that’s essentially what they described my sister’s death as.”
Describing the moment, Luke recalled, “She was in her home doing her laundry, and it was, you know, somebody just turned the switch off on her and it was just tragic beyond words.”
In an effort to find answers, the family chose to investigate her untimely death, hoping to learn if any hereditary conditions could have affected her three children: Jordan, Kris and Tilde. However, Luke highlighted that it took a significant amount of time for the family to receive official confirmation regarding the cause of death due to several inconclusive findings.
“She had a pretty severe, like, orbital bone injury,” he noted, speculating that she might have fainted and fallen. “My nephew was 3 at the time,” Luke added. He reflected on the heart-wrenching possibility that had “someone been there, maybe her chances of surviving could have possibly been a lot better.”
“She really was everything in our lives,” Luke said of his sister. “She was a mother of three children and she was, I mean, the best mother you could ever dream of. And we all leaned on her for so many things and it’s hard to really wrap your brain around her being gone.”
Luke shared his emotional journey of grief, admitting he struggled to vocalize his feelings during Kelly’s funeral.
“I felt nausea the morning of,” he recalled. “I did not want to go in the funeral home and see my sister. I was just really … not processing this well.”
When he saw her, “it was almost like a pressure valve released. It was truly like she set me free in that room,” he shared.
He remarked that his mother did not share this moment of solace, feeling he was the only one in the family who found peace at that time.
Tragically, seven years after Kelly’s death, her husband, Ben Cheshire, also passed away from a heart attack.
Subsequently, Luke and his wife, Caroline Bryan, took on the responsibility of raising Kelly’s three children.
“My oldest Bo and Til, I mean, it is all brotherly. It looks and smells just like two brothers complaining and fighting and wrestling and giving each other a hard time,” he joked about the family dynamic. “But with Tate, my 15-year-old and Til, they have a really special bond, and I can’t imagine a household where Til would have never grown up in it. It’s just been a blessing and a silver lining to have him and to watch the girls go through life.”
