Simone Holtznagel breaks down on SAS Australia over Charlotte Dawson’s 2014 death
Model Simone Holtznagel has revealed she “drank every day” after the shock death of her friend and mentor, Charlotte Dawson, in 2014.
Australian model Simone Holtznagel has revealed she “drank every day” and could “barely get out of bed” after the shock death of her friend and mentor, Charlotte Dawson, in 2014.
The 28-year-old reality star broke down during her interrogation on tonight’s episode of SAS Australia as she recalled her emotional turmoil following Dawson’s suicide.
Holtznagel, who hails from Wollongong, said the pair first struck up a bond when she was a contestant on Australia’s Next Top Model, in which Dawson was a judge.
“When I did Top Model, one of the judges on the show I met and she really took me under her wing,” she told the soldiers during the interrogation.
She added: “She had a lot of high hopes for me, but she had a lot of sh*t as well. And she passed away a few years ago. She committed suicide. I was about 20.”
Remembering the moment she found out about Dawson’s death, Holtznagel – who placed third in the televised modelling competition – revealed she had to identify the body.
“I just collapsed to the ground. I was asked to go and identify her body because her family was in New Zealand at the time,” she said.
Holtznagel added: “I think about it now and I’m like, ‘I was so little. I was a baby’.
“A couple months after she died, I was drinking every day, barely getting out of bed.
“I had a moment where I was just like, ‘You know what, she died, I didn’t. I need to live my life’.
“And if she’d have seen me doing that she would’ve hated it, because she always just had so much belief that I would go on and be this superstar.”
Dawson ended her life aged just 47, triggering an outpouring of grief around the country.
Last week marked the eight year anniversary of her passing, with Holtznagel taking to Instagram with a photo of Dawson set to the song Lost Without You by Freya Ridings.
“8 years on, still totally heartbroken,” she wrote.
Holtznagel bowed out of SAS on tonight’s episode, after an excruciating task where she was teargassed.
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