Mindy McCready is the fifth person to have appeared on the “Celebrity Rehab” reality show and later die after relapsing.
Her suicide follows the drug overdoses of Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and “Real World” cast member Joey Kovar, who appeared with her in the show’s third season in 2010.
Two guests in the first two seasons — Jeff Conaway, of TV’s “Taxi,” and Rodney King, whose beating by police set off the Los Angeles riots — also died of drug-related causes.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, the star and executive producer of the VH1 series, said he was “deeply saddened” by McCready’s death.
On the show, Pinsky treats celebs’ substance addictions. The show has treated about 43 people over its six seasons.
Actress Mackenzie Phillips, a “Rehab” guest with McCready, called the suicide “astounding.”
“[Mindy] was funny. She was smart. She was loving. She was kind. She was incredibly talented,” Phillips told TMZ.
Conaway was said to be addicted to booze, painkillers and other drugs on the first season and to cocaine and Oxycontin on the second. He died in May 2011 at age 60 from complications from pneumonia after an apparent overdose.
King, treated for alcoholism, drowned in his swimming pool in July 2012 at 47. Alcohol, cocaine and pot were in his system.
Kovar, a bodybuilder, was treated for several addictions, including ecstasy. He died at 29 in August 2012 after an OD.
Starr, hooked on heroin and other drugs, was 44 when he died in March 2011 of what Pinsky called a prescription-drug overdose.