BOOKS
Transcending
TRAGEDY
Dr. Jennifer Ashton shares her personal story
COMPILED BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
48
2019 EDITION (201) HEALTH
MAKEUP BY
B
efore February 11, 2017,
Dr. Jennifer Ashton had a lot
of titles to her credit. She’d
received a medical degree
from Columbia College of
Physicians and Surgeons,
become a board-certified ob-gyn, been the
medical correspondent for CBS News
Network before joining the ABC News
medical unit as senior medical contributor,
and written books about health for teens
and women. But on that date, she took on
a title that she hadn’t sought or wanted:
widow. Two weeks after their divorce,
her husband of 20 years, surgeon Robert
Ashton, died by
suicide by jumping
off the George
Washington Bridge
not far from her
Fort Lee apartment.
The experience,
along with the
high-profile suicides
of Kate Spade and
Anthony Bourdain
in 2018, prompted
her to write her
account of the
tragedy. In Life after
Suicide: Finding
HAPPIER TIMES
Courage, Comfort &
Dr. Jennifer Ashton,
Community after
second from left, with
loved ones including
Unthinkable Loss
Dr. Robert Ashton,
(William Morrow,
at right.
$25), Ashton lays out
her own story, while