Paulina Porizkova Recalls Ric Ocasek's Final Day

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Ric Ocasek's widow Paulina Porizkova says her late-ex-husband's death last month was natural and not the result of complications from a recent surgery.

Porizkova recalls in a new op-ed for Rolling Stone that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was steadily getting better after a hospital stay two weeks before his death. While she and Ocasek separated in 2017, Porizkova says the musician's respite brought their family back together as she and their two sons stayed close to the patriarch in the weeks before his passing.

The model said their youngest son, Oliver, came home from school to spend the weekend with his dad. Knowing her husband's sweet tooth, Porizkova said she brought some cookies to the house that night as a treat.

"When I got there, he was sitting in his usual chair and I said, 'I got some gooey cookies,' and he said, 'OK, thanks, hon — I had some terrible cookies because I was in the mood for cookies, but I'll have your gooey cookies tomorrow. I think I'm going to bed early since I'm feeling a little sore.' And that was the last time I saw him alive," she writes.

The Cars' front man was not a morning person and usually woke up late, Porizkova notes. But he was ordered by his doctors to get up earlier after his surgery, as a matter of "protocol." When Porizkova arrived at Ocasek's New York City townhouse around 10 the following morning, she found Ocasek in bed, in his usual sleeping position. She decided to let him rest a bit longer.

She did some chores and when she didn't hear any movement from Ocasek's room by 11, she felt something was wrong. After pouring some coffee for him, she went back to his room and noticed he hadn't moved at all.

"And at that point, I knew, but I couldn't believe it," she adds.

Recalling his former manager's warning about how "things will start to happen" after one calls 911, Porizkova says she waited until the afternoon to call authorities until both of their sons were home. That way they could say goodbye together, quietly.

"So we waited, and we got to circle the bed and hold hands and really say goodbye. We were here with his shape for many hours after his death. But the minute I called 911, literally two minutes [after], there were paparazzi at our house."

While she was frustrated by some of the media coverage and by the New York Medical Examiner's announcement that Ocasek died of a heart issue, she concluded that she's ultimatley happy their family got to be together one last time.

Photo: Getty Images


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