Her late ex-husband, Christian Evans, struggled with bipolar disorder prior to his 2017 death.
Ricki Lake's first-ever tattoo has a poignant meaning. The 54-year-old TV personality appeared on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain where she opened up about the ink on her left forearm that honors her late ex-husband, Christian Evans.
Evans died in 2017 from a suicide after years of struggling with bipolar disorder. Evans and Lake were married from 2012 to 2015.
"My beloved husband passed away from suicide and bipolar five and a half years ago," Lake explained on Wednesday. "So this was his wedding vow to me that I found on the stationary after he died and it says, 'I vow to continue loving you.'"
Lake, who has since remarried, shared that the message is both a tribute to her late ex and also a message to herself.
"It's not only a message from him, but it's a message to continue loving myself," Lake said. "That relationship and that loss was definitely the darkest period of my life, but through it, so many gifts have come out of it. I'm now remarried and I'm very much in the happiest place I've ever been in my life."
Lake opened up about loving someone who suffered from bipolar disorder, saying that at first she wasn't really aware of all that it entailed.
"I didn't even know what bipolar was. He told me when we met that he was diagnosed bipolar, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we all have our stuff. I'm a control freak, I know.' I didn't understand what a manic episode, what a psychotic break was until years later and it was the darkest days of my life, but I learned so much," she said.
Prior to her marriage to Evans, Lake was also married to Rob Sussman from 1994 to 2004.
Lake tied the knot with Ross Burningham in January 2022. She previously told The New York Times that she believes Evans helped her to find love again.
“When he passed over, he started taking care of me. He wanted me to find love — I believe Ross is the man Christian wishes he could have been for me," Lake said.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
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