Caitlyn Jenner has broken her silence regarding the unexpected death of her close friend Sophia Hutchins, nearly two months after the tragic event.
Hutchins, aged 29, passed away on July 2 following an accident involving an ATV. The incident reportedly took place near Jenner’s residence in Malibu.
The ATV that Hutchins was driving fell down a 350 ft ravine, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
It has been reported that two other individuals were in the vehicle at the time of the crash, but they were not injured.
Following the unfortunate accident, Sergeant Eduardo Saucedo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department suggested that the ATV may have been traveling at high speed.
“It looks like she may have been speeding and rear-ended the other car, the other party, and then that caused her to veer to the right and go off the cliff,” he explained to the DailyMail.com.
Saucedo elaborated: “It doesn’t seem like she was following them. I think she just came up on them and then hit the car.
“So it looked like she tried to maneuver to go around it, but she was going too fast and just ended up clipping the rear end of that Mazda, causing her to veer off and go off the cliff there.”
The death certificate from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health, obtained by TMZ, confirmed that Hutchins’ cause of death was blunt force injuries.
Her funeral was held in Los Angeles on July 15, and it is believed that Jenner attended the service.
While Jenner has been privately mourning the loss of her friend and manager, she has now spoken publicly about Hutchins’ death.
During a segment on Fox News at Night on August 28, Jenner expressed: “Recently, my good friend Sophia passed away in a tragic accident. But for the last seven weeks, I’ve been dealing with death, and it’s so difficult.”
The former Olympic athlete also addressed a recent school shooting in Minneapolis, which resulted in the deaths of two children.
“When [the shooting] happened, it really hit me hard,” Jenner stated. “Because here I am dealing with my grief, and I just can’t even imagine parents who dropped their kid off at school and, like that father just said, ‘I’ll never get a chance to talk to him again.’ That is just so horrible.”
She concluded: “I’ve been dealing with grief, and these people have a long road ahead of them, and they’re going to be dealing with grief.”
For those dealing with bereavement and seeking confidential support, contact GrieveWell at (734) 975-0238 or via email at [email protected].