“All My Children” actress Esta TerBlanche has passed away at the age of 51.
TerBlanche, who hails from South Africa, “died unexpectedly” last Thursday at her home located in North Hollywood, her goddaughter, Barbie Ashley, said in comments given to TMZ on Sunday. Very young to have left this world so suddenly, right? So many people have been “dying suddenly” over the last several years. It’s really quite strange. Of course, lots of folks think this is the result of taking a certain kind of vaccine that we shall leave nameless, but who knows for sure?
Medical personnel believe that TerBlanche had been dead for at least a day before her body was found.
via The New York Post:
Her rep, Lisa Rodrigo, told TMZ the star’s death is under investigation. TerBlanche rose to fame after she won Miss Teen South Africa in 1991. Her first acting role was as Bienkie Naudé Hartman on South Africa’s first soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” from 1992 to 1995. In 1997, she was cast in the role of Gillian Andrassy in “All My Children.”
Gillian is a Hungarian princess. She starts off as a spoiled and arrogant girl who evolves into a much kinder and compassionate person. She was killed off the show in 2001. TerBlanche briefly reprised the role in 2011 as a ghost who appears to Cameron Mathison’s Ryan Lavery. The show ended in 2013.
She talked about her return to the show in an interview with Soap Opera Digest published one week before the news of her death.
“When I came back, it was really emotional for me and Cameron. When we saw each other, we both started bawling,” TerBlanche stated in the interview. “Back then, we hadn’t seen each other for years, so it was such a touching moment for us.”
After her stint on “All My Children” the actress gave up the craft and returned to South Africa. However, during the conversation she had with Soap Opera Digest, TerBlanche said she was now spending more time in the U.S. and was looking to return to the acting world.
“It’s definitely something I would like to get back into,” she told the publication.
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She then went on to discuss her relationship with Mathison.
“I saw Cameron recently; I was babysitting his beautiful dog Red, who had cancer, and he was doing everything for him,” she explained. “He was supposed to stay a day, but I kept saying he could stay longer, and after five nights, he started to walk, and it was such an amazing experience.”
“A few months later, Red did pass away, but he got so much better in that time, and we had a very special time,” she continued.
TerBlanche dedicated a significant amount of her time and money to helping a South African cancer foundation called Create Your Breakthrough.
“It’s about helping people with cancer get the treatments they need and help fight this really awful disease,” she stated during the interview. “I lost my mom to cancer and my dad also has cancer, so I just feel really passionate about this. I would be so thrilled if in this lifetime, we can come up with some kind of a cure. It would be such a miracle. Seeing someone go through this in front of your eyes is just heartbreaking.”
TerBlanche married Andre Kock back in 1997, but the couple’s relationship only lasted a year, divorcing in 1998.