TaraDeS — 10 months ago(May 16, 2025 09:22 PM)

Heartbreaking Truth about Child Star Sophie Nyweide's Drug Addiction Battle prior to Death at 24
The actress — who was pregnant when she died on April 14, 2025 — was remembered by her longtime friend and ex-girlfriend Eden Herlihy in a new interview with TMZ.
Herlihy said Nyweide
"never gave up"
and even tried to help other fellow addicts.
Sophie Nyweide (July 08, 2000 - April 14, 2025) was pregnant when she died.
"She had hope…I've lost a lot of people to addiction sadly,"
Herlihy said.
"Me and Sophie lost a lot of friends to this disease over the past couple of years. We knew the severity of it. She was the last person I was expecting to die from this disease because she was so strong."
While her cause of death is still unconfirmed, Sophie's mom, Shelly Gibson (63), previously suspected an accidental drug overdose.
Sophie Nyweide and her mother Shelly Gibson.
"No one is ever the right person to go. No one is meant to go from this disease, at least in my opinion. But I never thought it would be her because we fought so hard to survive the stuff we’ve gone through in our lives."
Herlihy recounted meeting Nyweide at Elevations, a Utah residential treatment center for adolescents aged 13-18 dealing with anxiety, depression, bullying and other challenges.
Having known each other for a while, Herlihy shared that she and Nyweide supported each other through their own addiction struggles. She witnessed Nyweide using drugs and admitted to using with her.
Herlihy also remembered Nyweide's warm and welcoming nature towards others.
"She didn't judge anybody, she wasn't like the regular girls of our age group that [were] judging each other. She was kind off the bat, wasn’t talking bad about anybody. She just wanted everybody to feel safe and cared for."
"She was the last person I was expecting to die." (Nyweide with a friend)
Herlihy also got emotional while talking about the fact that Nyweide was pregnant at the time of her death, saying it was like a
"knife in my heart. She always wanted to be a mother, she loved my daughter. She was amazing around my daughter. She never really got the chance to like get her life together to be given the opportunity to like have the life that she wanted."
Herlihy added that while she didn't know if Nyweide would have
"kept the child"
, it was
"her goal at one point in her life"
to become a mom.
It is yet to be confirmed how long she'd been carrying the baby.
Nyweide's mom previously told DailyMail.com
"I am aware she was using drugs. She had been for quite a while. We had put her in many treatment centers. We don't have the toxicology reports back yet."
Police revealed that a man was with the former actress who was found lifeless on a riverbank in Vermont.
He was
"cooperating with the investigation"
and was not declared a person of interest in the case.
Nyweide in 2007 at Bella premiere in NYC.
Sophie Nyweide appeared in seven movies before turning 10. She's best known for portraying Michelle Williams' on-screen daughter in the movie
Mammoth
(2009). She passed away on April 14 as confirmed by her family in an online obituary.
"Sophie was a kind and trusting girl. Often this left her open to being taken advantage of by others. She wrote and drew voraciously, and much of this art depicts the depth she had, and it also represents the pain she suffered,"
her loved ones wrote.
"Many of her writings and artwork are roadmaps of her struggles and traumas. Even with those roadmaps, diagnoses and her own revelations, those closest to her, plus therapists, law enforcement officers and others who tried to help her, are heartbroken their efforts couldn’t save her from her fate."
Her loved ones went on to reveal that Nyweide
"self-medicated to deal with all the trauma and shame she held inside and that resulted in her death. She repeatedly said she would 'handle it' on her own and was compelled to reject the treatment that might possibly have saved her life,"
they detailed.
In lieu of gifts or flowers, her family requested fans make a donation to
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
(RAINN) in Nyweide's name. RAINN is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization.
The young star's obituary highlighted her lifelong passion for acting, which her family said she
"dreamed (more like demanded) to do from a young age, without ever knowing her mother was an actor. She seemed happiest on a movie set, becoming someone else. It was a safe place for her and she relish from the casts and crews who nourished her talent and her well being."
Nyweide booked her first acting gig in the movie
Bella
(2006) and proceeded to get parts in episodes of
Law & Order, And Then Came Love, Margot at the Wedding
and
New York City Serenade
. Her other credits include
Shadows & Lies
(2010),
Mistakes Were Made
(2011),
Noah
(2014),
What Would You Do
(2015) and her final film role in the short
Born Again
(2015). Following her performance in an
An Invisible Sign
(2010) alongside Jessica Alba, film critic Jeannette Catsoul