Rickey Smiley opened up about his late son Brandon’s death while visiting Today on Thursday (March 2). After one month, the longtime comedian has revealed that the 32-year-old, may have “succumbed to drug abuse.”
Smiley, 54, told host Melvin Craig that it was his son’s girlfriend who called him to unfortunately share the news that Brandon was “unresponsive” and “in her words, that he had OD’d.”
“He used, and it killed him,” Smiley added before sharing that he was “shocked but not surprised” by his son’s death.
As a toxicology report has not been revealed as of publication, the 54-year-old said that he had “prepared, deep inside” for a possible fatality due to Brandon’s battle with drug addiction.
“His mother and I made several attempts to try to send him to get the help that he needed — send him to rehab,” Smiley continued. “We thought that he was doing better. He had just joined the church and he had just gotten baptized again — probably a month before he passed away.”
Without answers to what triggered Brandon’s drug abuse, Smiley shared that his family is “all clean and sober.” He added, “We just assume that if you’re in a good school district or you’re in a gated community or everything is going good that these kids are not doing drugs. You don’t have to be in the hood.”
However, during the time that he revealed his son’s death to social media, Smiley recalled, “My granddaddy went through this sh*t with my dad, and somehow, here I am going through the same thing my grandparents went through.”
At the time he requested prayers for his son’s mother, Brenda Morris, as well as Brandon’s daughter, Storm.
Take a look at Rickey Smiley courageously speak on his son Brandon Smiley’s death below.
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