Mark Salling's former girlfriend thinks his possession of child pornography was a "sickness".
Mark Salling
The 'Glee' actor took his own life two years ago, just weeks before he was due to be sentenced after pleading guilty to the crime, and Georgie Leahy has reflected on how she tried to support the star, although they had broken up two years before.
Speaking on her 'Georgie and Friends' podcast, she said: "I was there for him as much as I could. I wanted him to know that he has me...
"It's an addiction, it's a sickness. None of us can comprehend it, understand it."
Georgie believes Mark was trying to "get well through" her during their 2015 relationship but was confused by the differences in their romance and "his dark secret".
She said: "I'm very womanly -- I don't have a childlike figure -- so I feel like I fit into one half of his life. He was probably in pain for a very long time."
The 32-year-old beauty recalled how she felt when she first heard her former lover had been arrested.
She said: "My brain was going crazy. I tried to call Mark to find out what was going on, but the police had confiscated his phone."
She drove to his house and, finding no one home, left a note with her phone number and promised to be there as a friend if Mark needed her, and they met up one last time when he invited her over in February 2016.
She said: "We just hugged and sat together in total silence. I desperately wanted him to say, 'It's not true,' or 'I've been set up.' "
After that meeting, the actor shut her out.
She said: "I think he was trying to protect me."
Mark was first arrested in December 2015, with police finding over 25,000 images and 600 videos depicting child pornography.
He reached a plea deal in December 2017 and was expected to be sentenced to four to seven years in prison, but took his own life before the punishment could be handed out.
The case was dismissed after his death.
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