According to an Instagram post on her account, Heather Armstrong, the creator of Dooce.com, one of the earliest mother blogs, has passed away at the age of 47 years old.
“Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 — May 9, 2023. ‘It takes an ocean not to break.’ Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else,” the post on Instagram reads.
She was survived by her daughters Leta, 19, and Marlo, 14, as well as her ex-husband Jon Armstrong and her lover Pete Ashdown. Jon Armstrong did not immediately respond to a comment request. He responded to an Instagram comment that expressed doubt about the veracity of the report by writing, “Afraid so.” Ashdown confirmed to The Associated Press that Armstrong committed suicide. A request for comment did not receive a prompt response from him.
When Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms first emerged, Armstrong, who was formerly known as the “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers,” gained notoriety. She was one of the first “momfluencers” and paved the way for a plethora of other women to follow.
She started a blog in 2001, and because of her openness, she immediately gained fame. She highlighted the highs and lows of parenting her girls, as well as her experiences with quitting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and having sex.
Forbes listed Armstrong as one of the most powerful women in journalism in 2009; at the time, her blog had an average of 300,000 readers.
In an April 15, 2012 interview with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie, Armstrong said she was “really scared” to share the news of her divorce from her husband.
“A lot of people bring their own perspective and experience to something like this and I didn’t know if talking about it was going to destroy everything,” Armstrong said at the time. “I thought I had to talk about it, because I felt inauthentic not to share what was going on because I’ve been so open about my life for almost 11 years.”
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