Mindy or Malinda McCready was a known American country music singer who came to the limelight with her first album called “Ten Thousand Angels” in 1996 and reached Platinum release.
Her career was torn by problems in her personal life which ultimately ended by her death by suicide on February 17, 2013, when she was only 37 years old.
Early years
She was born as Malinda Gayle McCready on November 30, 1975 in Fort Myers, Florida, United States.
As a child she was always singing, both at home and outside. She was only 3 years old when she first sang in the local church.
After finishing elementary school she has enrolled high school but finished it early. She was only 16 when she decided that she wants to start her career early and end schooling.
She had dreams of a big music career, and was supported from everyone who heard her sing.
Career development
She was 18 years old when she decided to relocate to Nashville. BNA Records signed a contract with her and she has released her first album soon.
It was named “Ten Thousand Angels” and was released in 1996. The album was a big success and was sold in over two million copies.
Four of the singles from that album came to the charts of country music: her first and only number one hit named “Guys Do It All the Time” and the lead single named the same as the album, which came to No.6.
In 1997, she has released her new album called “If I Don’t Stay the Night”. It was well received but this time she has sold only over 800, 000 copies of the album.
In 1999, Malinda released her third album named “I’m Not So Tough”.
This album gained bad critics and not one of the singles from this album came to the charts. This album was sold in a little over 100,000 copies.
After this failure, her record label released her so she had to find a new one. After some time, she has signed a contract with Capitol Records.
In 2002, she released her first album with the new record company. It was named “Malinda McCready” but it had really bad sales so Capitol Records refused to continue working with her.
In 2008, after a few years of silence, Malinda released a single on her own website. It was named “I’m Still Here” and it was also the name of her album she released in 2010.
In the summer of 2009, McCready confirmed that she will appear in a reality TV show “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew”
She was invited because of her known problems with her addiction.
She struggled with her substance addiction in the show.
Two years later she had participated in TV series “Celebrity Close Calls” and “Celebrity Ghost Stories”.
She was also a guest on “20/20” show where she shared personal information about her relationship and motherhood.
Personal life
She was in a lot of relationships but they were never promising.
In 1997, she dated Dean Cain (the actor) and they got engaged. They soon broke up and she had returned her engagement ring.
After that she started going out with Drake Berehowsky, the NHL hockey player but it was of short life too.
In 2003 she has met an aspiring singer called William Patrick “Billy” McKnight but this relationship was severely dangerous for her.
William was arrested in May, 2005, after he almost killed Malinda by beating and choking her. He was charged for this severe crime with attempted murder charge.
Only one month later Malinda was found unconscious on the floor in a hotel in Florida and it was discovered that she wanted to comit suicide.
She comsumed a large quantity of drugs and alcohol but survived.
Unfortunately she wasn’t smart enough to keep William McKnight away but she returned to him after he phisically abused her.
She even got pregnant and in September 2005 she tried to kill both herself and the baby with high doses of meds.
She gave birth to her son Zander Ryan in 2006.
Two years later, she tried to kill herself again, but this time she has tried to cut her wrists.
In 2009, she was again a contestant in a reality TV show ” Celebrity Rehab 3 with Dr. Drew Pinsky” but it was all in vain.
A year later she attempted suicide again bit this time it wasn’t that severe overdose.
In 2010, Vivid Entertainment has released a porn video of Malinda and one of her former boyfriends named Peter.
In 2012, she gave birth to Zayne, her second son, who came from her relationship with a record producer David Wilson.
The baby’s dad was found dead a year later, from a wound he received by axcidentally shooting himself.
Malinda claimed that she was in a long relationship with a known baseball player which lasted from her 15 birthday to the age of 25.
The baseball star denied it, claimimg they were just family friends.
In 2004, Malinda got herself arrested because she tried to use a counterfit prescription for OxyContin. She had to pay $4,000 and gained probation in the duration of three years. She was again arrested for speeding and driving while beinig intoxicated. She was arrested several times for going out of state without notifing her probation officer.
In 2007, she attacked her mpther at Fort Meyers which resulted in charges for assault. After breaking probation so many times she ended up in jail for one year.
In February, 2013, she killed herself at the same place where David Wilson shot himself accidentally and died.
Malinda killed the dog before killing herself. As her good friend explained she didn’t kill the dog because she hated the dog.
It was just the opposite: it was her and David’s dog so she wanted to take the dog with herself to go to David in heaven. They bought the dog together and he was a part of them.
Quick summary
Full name: Malinda McCready
Date of birth: November 30, 1975
Birthplace: Fort Myers, Florida, United States
Age: 43
Profession: country singer, actress
Height: 1,73 m
Weight: 68 kgs
Net Worth: $200,000 (at time of death)
