Bernie Mac passed away in 2008, and in a heartbreaking interview with Oprah Winfrey, his widow, Rhonda McCullough, talked about the last moments of his life.
During an appearance on Where Are They Now, McCullough tearfully described the moments before her husband passed away.
“August the 8th, he had woke up,” McCullough stated. “They said, ‘We’re going to put a feeding tube in him,’ and just everything went wrong.” His heart stopped, and he had to be resuscitated."
McCullough and Mac were childhood sweethearts and had been together since they were 16 years old. In the interview, McCullough said that she had a request for Mac, and watching her speak about it is heartbreaking in itself.
“When they finally let me go into the room to see him, I was like, ‘Oh, my God,” McCullough said about the last hours before his death. “He was just shaking, and his eyes was just, like, wide open and he wasn’t really looking at anybody.”
“I said, ‘Please don’t, don’t die’ … I said, ‘I’m here. I’m waiting for you. I’ll take care of you. Just don’t, don’t die. Don’t die.’
“It was around 2 o’clock that morning. I remember seeing the door open, and the doctor was standing in the doorway,” she said. “I looked at her and I said, ‘He’s gone, isn’t he?’ She nodded. My whole life was him, since I was 16 … I didn’t know what I was gonna do. It’s like, what is my reasoning for being here now? What is my purpose? How am I going to make it now?”
McCullough's episode of Where Are They Now airs Saturday on OWN at 10 p.m.