Tanya Roberts dies the day after news of premature death

Early Monday morning, it was reported that actress Tanya Roberts – a Bond girl and tv star known for charlie’s angels and This 70s show – had died at age 65.

For most of the day, the news of his death was at the top of Google News while many of Roberts’ famous co-stars sharing memories of working with her on Twitter. As the internet cried, major news outlets issued obituaries describing his many accomplishments. Hours later, their headlines were corrected to read something like, “Tanya Roberts is still alive despite reports of her death.”

Then, early Tuesday, after this series of bizarre events, it was again reported that Roberts had died. But this time for real.

So how did this happen? Apparently, hours after Roberts’ publicist Mike Pingel announced her death on Monday, he announced that she was in fact still alive. Pingel blamed “human miscommunication” for the error, explaining that he had received notice of his client’s death from Lance O’Brien, Roberts’ longtime domestic partner.

According to the New York Times, Roberts had been hospitalized in LA since Christmas Eve. She had fallen ill from a hike and developed sepsis. O’Brien had gone to visit Roberts and, recounting his visit to Pingel, had said to him, “I just said goodbye to him.” Pingel apparently got the impression that Roberts was dead, and shortly thereafter O’Brien began to receive push alerts about his partner’s death.

The error was corrected, as were the headlines. Ashton Kutcher, one of the Roberts This 70s show castmates, even filed his own personal corrections on Twitter: “Yo bro, she is not dead”, he commented a publication by Topher Grace. To a message from Debra Jo Rupp, Kutcher replied, “Dj she’s still alive.” (At the time of publication, both tweets are still live.)

Throughout this ordeal, Roberts remained hospitalized and her condition worsened. She passed away Monday evening.