Gia Allemand's boyfriend Ryan Anderson has broken his silence about the former The Bachelor and Bachelor Pad contestant's August suicide.
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"Every day is a challenge," the New Orleans Pelicans player told the city's The Times-Picayune newspaper. "It helps to be here. My family's with me. To be here with my teammates really helps a lot but it's a roller-coaster."
Anderson explained he has turned to faith in such a difficult time.
"I praise God every day to have Him in my life. It would be very, very hard to get through these steps if I didn't have God and Jesus Christ in my life," he said. "I'm really glad coach asked me to come back when he did. I've been here for a few weeks now and just being around the guys and being back in the gym, having some sort of routine back, it helps a little bit."
Allemand's August 12 hanging at age 29 was reportedly sparked by her inability to cope with the idea of a breakup with Anderson, who said he didn't love her anymore the day of her suicide. The pair allegedly had a rocky relationship prior to Allemand's death because she was pushing to wed and have kids while he wasn't ready.
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Anderson told the newspaper he plans to start a foundation in Allemand's memory to help others in their personal struggles and inability to live up to mainstream expectations.
"Something like that just doesn't happen for no reason, and I know that... there's... a huge plan here. A lot of people are going to be helped from this. We're in the process of starting something great for her with her family, including my family, too. We have a huge plan to do something great, great in her name that's going to help a lot of people," Anderson explained.
"This is a topic that is not talked about enough, it is a huge problem. And we live in a society quite frankly now... where you've got to live up to something, you've got to be a certain person and you're not going to be accepted and every single person has something special about them."
Added Anderson, "That's what I want to be my goal here. To have everybody here know that they're not alone. Whatever you're going through in life, you're not alone... It's going to be something great to prove that, to show people that they're not alone."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski