Who was Leanne Knight and What happened to her? White Lotus star Walton Goggins recalls first wife’s tragic death

Leanne Knight was the first wife of actor Walton Goggins. She died by suicide back in 2004. In an interview with GQ, "The Hateful Eight" actor, who is currently receiving acclaim for his appearance in season three of the highly popular show "The White Lotus," opened up about his tragic loss.

"Ultimately it was revealed the decision that she’d made. And yeah—I thought it was really unrecoverable for me. Life on the other side of that.”

The actor, who was married to Leanne Knight for three years before the tragedy struck, struggled with coming to terms with the reality of the incident. This would prompt him to take a trip across South and Southeast Asia, with Thailand being one of the destinations he would visit, much like his character in the series.

"And I spent the next three years looking for an excuse—not to end it, but certainly putting myself in situations that were questionable, not with drugs or anything like that, just life experiences and traveling. And I really went all over the world.”

More about Leanne Knight, as Walter Goggins recounts the tragedy

Leanne Knight was born on March 19, 1967 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Peggy and Robert "Brian" Bob Knight. Her parents eventually separated, after which her mother married Arnold Kaun. According to Find a Grave, at the time of her death, she was survived by her brother Jay, her father, who died in 2016, her mother, and her stepfather, Arnold Kaun.

According to Mirror, Leanne Kaun, as she was also known, ran a dog-walking business in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. She was married to Walton Goggins from 2001 till 2004, although reports suggest the couple were separated by then.

Leanne Knight had gone missing on the evening of 12 November, 2004, and was later discovered to have died by suicide after jumping from the seventeenth floor of a building in Los Angeles. She was thirty-seven years old at the time of her death.

During a 2019 appearance on The Daily Beast, Walton Goggins recounted how painful the experience was for him.

"I drifted for upwards of three years after that. It took me a really long time to come back from it. If it weren’t for the people in my life that cared about me, that stepped in and helped me understand that life goes on, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Apart from Thailand, the two-time Emmy-nominated actor also visited Cambodia, Vietnam, and India to help process his grief.

During his interview with GQ Magazine, the "Django Unchained" actor added that while he knew he was going to travel to Thailand to shoot this season of "The White Lotus," he did not realize the emotional impact it would have on him until he arrived there.

"The first island we were staying on. I realized, ‘I’ve been on this road before’. And then the next island we went to, I realized, ‘I’ve definitely been on this beach before. I know this boardwalk.’ And all of the things kept coming back.”

The "Justified" actor further added:

"That's where I was the very first day I came here, 20 years ago, and in so much … pain, man. That's where we were filming, man – all of the equipment was literally right in front of the hotel that I'd picked 20 years ago on the internet, on this little bitty road in this little bitty neighborhood."

Walton Goggins further added that he wishes he could go back in time to comfort that version of himself from twenty years ago.

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"I mean, I thought about that on the day. I thought, God, I wish I could hug that guy. I wish I could whisper in his ear, You’re going to be okay. Life continues, and it continues for everybody if you can just hold on and lean into it and keep walking the walk that you’re walking, and keep looking for the answers.”

After the death of Leanne Knight, Walter Goggins married director Nadia Conners in 2011. The couple have a son, Augustus.

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