Talinda Ann Bentley: Linkin Park Frontman’s Wife Saved Him From ‘Complete Drug And Alcohol Insanity’


Chester Bennington’s short life tragically ended on Thursday morning, when reports emerged that the Linkin Park frontman had committed suicide at the young age of 41. In his passing, he had left behind his second wife, Talinda Ann Bentley, whom he had credited repeatedly for saving him during the darkest moments of his battles with drugs, alcohol, and depression.

A report from Mirror looked back at the love story of rock star Chester Bennington and model Talinda Bentley, which started in 2004 when they were introduced by a mutual friend, musician Ryan Shuck. The couple started dating in December of that year, and as Chester would later recall, it didn’t take more than a week and a half before they moved in together.

Bennington and Bentley married in 2005 and had three children together — 11-year-old Tyler, and 6-year-old twins Lily and Lila. According to Heavy, Chester also had three children with two other women — Jamie and Isaiah with ex-girlfriend Elka Brand and Draven Sebastian with first wife Samantha Marie Olit.

While Bennington related in a 2009 interview with Bullz-Eye that his divorce from Olit was a major personal and financial blow, he added that it was also one of the “best things” to ever happen to him, as it allowed him to move on from the past and take control of his personal demons, mainly with the help of Talinda Ann Bentley, his wife of four years at the time.

“I eventually learned from it and moved on. I then fell in love again and I got help facing my demons… When I met Talinda, I knew she was the one pretty instantly. She moved into my place after a week and a half or something like that.”

Chester Bennington and second wife Talinda Bentley were married from 2005 to his death in 2017. [Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

Bennington added that it was through Talinda’s help that he was, at that point, “lucky to be alive” after several periods in his life marked by “complete drug and alcohol insanity.”

Apart from his well-documented tenures as lead singer of nu-metal megastars Linkin Park and grunge legends Stone Temple Pilots, Chester Bennington also formed the band Dead by Sunrise, a side project that also includes the aforementioned Ryan Shuck, and Shuck’s Julien-K and Orgy bandmate, Amir Derakh. One of the band’s songs, “Give Me Your Name,” was cited by Mirror as a song Chester had specifically written for Talinda. The song’s lyrics make references to the difficult divorce he had with first wife Samantha, and the ways in which Bentley had helped him deal with depression and substance abuse, two things Bennington had struggled with for most of his adult life.

Aside from writing songs for his wife, Chester Bennington also honored Talinda Ann Bentley through poems he wrote on Instagram, as seen in the above post. This poem was shared less than three months before the late rocker apparently committed suicide.

As the Inquisitr wrote in a report earlier today, Talinda Ann Bentley has been dealing with more than just the death of her husband in recent days. Hackers allegedly broke into her Twitter account to make vile accusations under her name, not the least of these being claims that she made Chester Bennington’s death look like a suicide, and that she had an affair with Chester’s Linkin Park bandmate, Mike Shinoda. And while she and one of her twin daughters were recently sighted in a mall near their Palos Verdes, California home, both mother and daughter were clearly downcast, as they continue to deal with Bennington’s tragic death.

[Featured Image by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images]

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