Married four times, Mike put his career ahead of his family for decades. “He was not a bad father — he was an absentee father,” Chris told Closer. “But at one point in his early 70s, he said one of the joys of living a long life was he had time to make amends. In the last years of his life, we became very close.”
Mike didn’t just open up to his family in his later years; he helped millions by going public with his battles against depression. The stress of being sued by Gen. William Westmoreland for libel in the ’80s weighed on his mind (the suit was settled out of court). “I had done a story for 60 Minutes on depression previously, but I had no idea that I was now experiencing it,” Mike confessed. “Finally, I collapsed.”
But he bounced back. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of when you’re going through a depression,” he said. “If you get help, the chances of your licking it are really good.” Sadly, Mike died at age 93 in 2012 and left a lasting legacy. Belkin told Closer, “He wasn’t afraid to go after the truth.”
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