Nick Cave opens up about sudden deaths of sons Arthur and Jethro

Nick Cave has opened up about the grief he felt after the deaths of two of his sons within seven years of each other.

The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star, 66, faced a parent's worst nightmare in July 2015 when his then 15-year-old son Arthur died after falling from a 60ft cliff near his Brighton home after "freaking out" while under the influence of LSD.

In 2022, Nick's son Jethro – who suffered from schizophrenia – passed away aged 31 in Melbourne, two days after he was released from jail for assaulting his mother, Beau Lazenby.

Jethro's cause of death was never disclosed.

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Speaking to Mojo magazine about his grief, Nick said: "There's a sort of resilience, I've really noticed this in my wife. When you are broken apart, you come back tougher."

He added: "When the worst happens, other things don't feel as important anymore."

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Nick relocated his family, wife Susie Bick and Arthur's twin Earl, to Los Angeles soon after Arthur's death because they were "triggered too much" living so close to the scene of the accident.

Months after Arthur's death, an inquest heard that he had taken the hallucinogenic drug LSD and had been spotted staggering around the top of the cliff before falling over.

Concerned drivers who witnessed the accident jumped out of their cars to look for the teenager, who was found on the underpass of Ovingdean Gap with a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage as well as two broken legs.

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Arthur was airlifted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton but later died from his injuries. Police said his death was not suspicious.

Nick and his wife released a statement at the time of their son's death, writing: "Our son Arthur died on Tuesday evening. He was our beautiful, happy loving boy. We ask that we be given the privacy our family needs to grieve at this difficult time."

Nick announced Jethro's death in May 2022 with a short message that read: "With much sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away. We would be grateful for family privacy at this time."

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In 2019, Nick embarked on a part-tour/part-question session where audience members could ask him anything.

When he was asked about losing a son, Nick reportedly replied: "This is what happens: You think you know who you are — you build yourself into the thing that you think you are in your mind — and then it just gets shattered.

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"And then you build it into something else," he added. "And that something else, for me, was a deep feeling toward other people and an absolute understanding of the suffering of other people.”

Alongside Earl, Nick is also a father to Luke Cave, whom he shares with his ex-wife Viviane Carneiro. Luke was born in Brazil but then moved to the UK with his father.