Chris Lighty’s Wife Speaks on Her Husband’s Death

When the news of Violator Management founder Chris Lighty’s suicide broke on Thursday, an early report said that the industry vet shot himself following an argument with his wife.

On Monday (September 3), Lighty’s wife, Veronica Lighty, adamantly, yet tearfully refuted reports that her husband killed himself over an argument with her.

“My husband was too smart of a man,” she told the New York Daily News. “He was a genius. No smart man is going to leave his children for fighting with his wife. That makes absolutely no sense.

“We had a passionate relationship,” she added. “We fought all the time.”

Adding to her first public comments since her husband’s shocking death, she said that she had retracted plans to divorce two days before Father’s Day as a “gift to him” and denied that they were in $5 million debt to the IRS. (The Daily News noted most of Lighty's tax debt was paid off, but the executive likely owed more than $330, 000 in state and federal taxes.)

Chris Lighty was found dead Thursday morning (August 30) at 11:33 a.m. inside his Riverdale, Bronx apartment with “self-inflicted gunshot wounds” to the head, according to the New York Police Department. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiners office. A number of Lighty's relatives and associates, however, have publicly questioned the suicide, instead suggesting foul play.

Lighty served as manager to superstars such as 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes and Diddy through the span of his career.—XXL