What caused Fleetwood Mac keyboardist Christine McVie’s death?
McVie sadly passed away from a severe stroke, following a cancer diagnosis. Up until now, the icon’s cause of death was kept quiet.
Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac tragically died due to a stroke, not long after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
The singer and keyboardist died in November 2022 at the age of 79, but the band kept quiet about McVie’s cause of death, citing a “short illness”.
The death certificate has revealed that the musician, whose fortune was more than $50 million, suffered from an obscure form of cancer as well as atrial fibrillation, but her ultimate cause of death was a massive stroke.
The uncovered death certificate
According to The Blast, who obtained a copy of the death certificate, McVie was battling cancer. The report states that the singer and keyboardist was diagnosed with a “metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin,” which means the cancer had spread throughout the body, but no primary source or tumor had been detected.
The National Institute of Health defines this form of cancer as “a metastatic tumor for which the site of origin is not suggested by a thorough history, physical examination, chest x-ray studies, routine blood and urine studies, and histologic evaluation.”
McVie also suffered from “atrial fibrillation” according to the death certificate, otherwise known as AFib, which is “the most common type of treated heart arrhythmia. An arrhythmia is when the heart beats too slowly, too fast, or in an irregular way.”
However, the cancer was the secondary cause of death, as McVie had an “ischaemic stroke”, which was the ultimate cause of her untimely death.
The National Institute of Health says this is the most common kind of stroke, and describes it as “a blood clot [that] blocks or narrows an artery leading to the brain.”
“A blood clot often forms in arteries damaged by the buildup of plaques (atherosclerosis),” the website reads. “It can occur in the carotid artery of the neck as well as other arteries.”
McVie told Rolling Stone about her health condition
The Fleetwood Mac star had been open about her health condition in the months leading up to her passing. She had said in an interview that it might prevent her from performing.
“I’m in quite bad health,” McVie told Rolling Stone. “I’ve got a chronic back problem that debilitates me.”
“I stand up to play the piano, so I don’t know if I could actually physically do it. What’s that saying? The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak,” the keyboardist explained, citing Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew.