Charlotte Dawson commits suicide as she struggles financially

Australian TV personality Charlotte Dawson was found dead at her Woolloomooloo home  in an apparent suicide following a long and very public battle with depression.

Charlotte Dawson’s friends have spoken of a sense of inevitability around her death, revealing that in recent weeks her mental state seemed specially fragile.

It is believed Charlotte Dawson, 47, was struggling financially, having borrowed up to $80,000 from friends as she tried to keep up the rent on her $1200-a-week apartment.

Charlotte Dawson had also been axed from her role on the popular Foxtel TV show Australia’s Next Top Model, and last November parted ways with management company Chic Management after they said her battles with mental illness were “damaging her brand”.

Only a week ago, Charlotte Dawson’s ex-husband Scott Miller had appeared on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes to talk about his drug addiction and the role it had played in the breakdown of their marriage. Charlotte Dawson, who described Scott Miller as the “love of her life”, said at the time she wasn’t sure if she would be strong enough to watch the interview.

Charlotte Dawson’s body was discovered the morning after Scott Miller’s 39th birthday.

She is understood to have been found by a security guard in her rented waterside apartment in the early hours of yesterday morning. Her body was later formally identified yesterday by Madeline Huett, a friend and former Top Model contestant.

Charlotte Dawson was hospitalized in 2012 after hundreds of social media trolls viciously targeted her on Twitter.

A police media spokesman told news.com.au: “About 11a.m., police from the Kings Cross local area command were called to Cowper Wharf Road after the body of a woman had been located in a unit. No suspicious circumstances at this stage and a report is being prepared for the coroner.”

It is believed her body was discovered after a real estate agent raised the alarm after she couldn’t reach Charlotte Dawson by mobile phone in relation to the auction of her home.