Patton Oswalt Discusses Wife’s Death: ‘It Might Have Been an Overdose’

“I was literally blinking trying to get out of this,” comedian says of tragic day Patton Oswalt has opened up about his wife Michelle McNamara’s death at age 46 in April, telling the New York Times he suspects the anti-anxiety medication Xanax might have played a part in her passing. According to Oswalt, he had become concerned about his wife’s health and encouraged her to “sleep until you wake up,” at which point McNamara, a true-crime writer, took Xanax and went to bed. The comedian recalled that, when he left a cup of coffee for her on a bedside table at 9:40 a.m., McNamara was snoring, but when he returned to their bedroom shortly before 1 p.m., she was no longer breathing. The comedian added that he turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism after McNamara’s death, to no avail. A week after McNamara’s death, the comedian paid tribute to his wife on Twitter, saying their 13 years together were “happily humbling” for him.