Catherine Bach thought her life was pretty close to perfect: she’d been happily married for 20 years; she had two lovely daughters, Sophia and Laura; her own jewellery line; and a huge fan following from her days playing Daisy Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard TV series.
But everything fell apart the day she walked through her front door, called for her husband, and heard a gunshot.
She started running towards the sound, which appeared to come from the rear of their property, when she suddenly stopped and thought: "Hey, turn around, you have two children, you can't be going in the middle of any kind of violent situation," she tells Huffington Post. "You're responsible for two little girls, what are you doing? You can take your life in your hands now."
It soon became clear that the unthinkable had happened: her beloved partner, entertainment lawyer Peter Lopez, had committed suicide. And nothing would ever be the same again.
Catherine has gone over that morning – April 30, 2010 – countless times in her head, searching for signs that something was wrong.
“I was making breakfast, and I was racing around the kitchen like a crazy woman and he came and stood behind me at the stove, and he said, `Hey, aren't you forgetting something?’ And I said, `No, I think I've got everything in line here.’
“And he said, `Honey, you're forgetting something.’ And I said, `Oh my gosh, yes I am.’ So I dropped everything and I turned around and I went into his arms and wrapped myself around him and I gave him a big kiss, and we looked at each other in the eyes and I said, `I love you.’