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UK Man Opens Up On How Wife Took Her Own Life Seven Months After Marriage

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The day before New Year’s Eve, Joseph Dewey hung up the phone, unaware it was the last time he would ever hear his wife Cate’s voice.

Shortly after Christmas, Joseph had left the flat he shared with Cate to spend the day with friends. She was preparing a three-course dinner for their upcoming New Year’s Eve party and had asked him to pick up some fresh pasta.

While out, he missed a call from her. The reception was poor, and he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying on the voicemail. Still, he had no idea it would be her final message.

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Their love story unfolded like something from a romantic movie. Bored and out of work during the Covid-19 lockdown, actor and director Joseph joined Hinge, where Cate was one of the first people he matched with.

He asked her about her favourite film—Legends of the Fall, which he hadn’t seen—so they watched it together but separately, chatting over WhatsApp about the music, the scenery, and her favourite scenes from their respective homes.

They didn’t know it then, but cinema would become a central thread in their relationship.

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Their first date was the next day—over Zoom. Joseph sprayed on cologne unnecessarily, and as soon as they logged on, they realised they had just been watching the same show: Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

“We were on the same wavelength from the start,” says Joseph, 37, speaking from Cate’s flat in Ware, Hertfordshire, with their wedding photos behind him.

READ ALSO:UK Opens Application For Chevening Scholarships

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Cate was the most beautiful person in the world. She lit up every room. She was really fun, such a foodie, an amazing cook and just an absolutely loving person. She was the most extroverted introvert. She loved going out and being around people, but then she loved hiding in her room playing Sims.”

Five months after meeting, Cate moved from Ware into Joseph’s London flat. With restrictions still in place, they spent Christmas alone—Joseph cooked turkey while Cate played on her new PlayStation game. The next day, snow began to fall.

I suggested we went for a walk and we found ourselves standing outside the London Eye in the middle of the day in the snow, with no one around. It was just magical,” Joseph recalls. “I knew then that Cate was the woman I wanted to marry.”

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But as Covid restrictions eased, Cate’s lifelong struggle with mental illness began to resurface.

She always said she had a brain funk, but didn’t really delve into it,” Joseph explains. He started noticing her panic attacks and realised something deeper was wrong.

“The respite of the pandemic enabled her to almost feel as if she could breathe again through that time. And when the world started to open up again, you could just see that it was a struggle for her. She’d find everything very overwhelming.”

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In 2023, Joseph arranged a fairytale proposal—inside the King’s Gallery, after asking a friend at Kensington Palace to close it for the occasion. Cate said yes immediately, and the couple started planning a cinema-themed wedding.

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By May 2024, when they married at Screen on the Green in Islington, Cate had already spent nearly a year on an NHS waiting list for therapy. The panic attacks persisted, but their wedding day brought peace.

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She was the calmest I’ve ever seen her on that day. I was an absolute wreck. And she was like, ‘I’ve got you.’ I will always thank her for the happiest day of my life. We had such a good day,” Joseph says.

After the wedding, they went to other friends’ ceremonies and enjoyed a honeymoon in Turkey. But when they returned, Cate’s mental health deteriorated.

She had tremendous anxiety and was having panic attacks,” Joseph says. “First of all, I would think: ‘Oh my god. What do you need, what can I do?’ But that is completely the wrong thing to do. You learn it is about being with them, distraction techniques, breathing next to them heavily so they can hear your breath and get into a rhythm themselves and having no questions, no shame, no blame about what was happening.”

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Joseph began researching everything he could to help her. He suspects Cate may have had undiagnosed ADHD—she would oscillate between intense energy and total exhaustion.

In 2024, she was prescribed antidepressants. Still waiting for NHS therapy, her family eventually paid for private support.

She was flying high in her career, working as an administrator at the Food and Drink Federation and they absolutely adored her. She was so good at the job, but sometimes she’d work from home, because going into the office would give her anxiety.”

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“If we went out and if it was too busy, she would have panic attacks where she would literally be on the floor struggling to breathe, which would then trigger depression. Cate just looked so sad and tired and would spend a lot more time inside.”

READ ALSO:UK PM Starmer Urges Israel To Stop Gaza Assault

Despite this, Christmas was a joyful time. They spent it with loved ones and made big plans for the future.

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We were going to move back to Ware to get out of central London. We were thinking about buying in Tunbridge Wells. We wanted to own a little cabaret space and Cate wanted to get a bridal shop called Catherine’s. We were going to get a dog, and start a family.”

Joseph hoped that once therapy and an ADHD assessment were underway, things would improve. Cate had mentioned suicidal thoughts—he feared they were a side effect of her medication—so they returned to the GP for support.

But then, on December 30, after a day spent apart, Joseph got a call from Cate’s mum asking where her daughter was.

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They soon discovered Cate had checked herself into a B&B and ended her life.

The days that followed were a blur. Joseph was in shock. “Cate’s mum called and said, ‘Cate’s gone.’ And I went: ‘Where’s she gone?’ And she was like, ‘No, honey, Cate’s gone.’”

Cate had left a letter each for her mum and sister, and a voicemail for Joseph: an apology, saying she couldn’t do it anymore.

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“She’d just had enough,” Joseph says. “Cate never wanted suicide. No one does – they just want the pain to stop.”

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Amid his grief, Joseph was left to organise a funeral he never imagined for someone so young. “Funerals are geared for older people,” he says. Designing her service and montage was surreal. Official letters that followed were “full of cold language” about her death.

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In one year, Joseph attended four weddings and a funeral. “If our story were a film, there would be a resolution. A happy ending. But this is real life,” he says.

Determined to turn pain into purpose, Joseph held a cabaret concert in May. Friends composed scores from Cate’s voice notes. On August 10—Cate’s 32nd birthday—loved ones will run a 10km race. In September, Joseph will walk 70 miles through London in Cate’s memory for Suicide Prevention Day.

He expects they’ll raise £25,000 for suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS by year’s end.

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It’s so important to speak about suicide, and if I can shine Cate’s light through talking about it, then that’s exactly what I want to do,” Joseph says. “Suicide is such a big killer, especially for the under-35s. Men’s mental health is being spoken about, but I don’t know if enough people speak up about young women dying from suicide, and unfortunately, that rate is going up.”

Joseph hopes openness can save lives. “Cate, my wife, dying – I want no one to experience that at such a young age. I miss her incredibly. Speaking about suicide doesn’t make the suicide rate go up. It actually does the opposite. So I want to use Cate’s voice to get people talking – and listening. People are suffering and if we don’t check in with each other, you don’t know what people are up to behind closed doors.”

And if you are struggling, go and speak to your GP. Go and call the Hope Line. Tell your friends and family. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

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(METRO)

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US Opposes Palestinian State Recognition, Says It’s Reward For Hamas

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United States President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, where they discussed differing views on the future of Gaza and Palestinian statehood.

CNN reports that Trump rejected the two-state solution to the crisis in Gaza, saying the idea portrays “reward” for Hamas.

France recently joined the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal to officially recognise the Palestinian state.

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Trump opened the Tuesday bilateral meeting by praising Macron’s diplomatic efforts, claiming the French leader had helped him prevent global conflicts.

“Emmanuel has actually helped me with a couple of the wars,” Trump said, in response to Macron’s recent remark that if the US president wants a Nobel Peace Prize, he should “put an end to the war in Gaza.”

READ ALSO Fresh World Trouble Looms As Netanyahu Tells Western Leaders ‘There Will Be No Palestinian State’

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When asked about Palestinian statehood, and his latest remarks, it would be a “gift to Hamas,” Trump again pushed back strongly.

Well, I think it honors Hamas, and you can’t do that because of October 7. You can’t do that. But we want our hostages back,” Trump said.

You always have to remember, people forget October 7 was one of the most savage days in the history of the world,” the US president said.

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In response, Macron, seated beside Trump, emphasised that recognising a Palestinian state does not mean ignoring Hamas’ October 2023 attacks on Israel.

The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel, fought since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas militant group attacked Israel, which has since launched offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation.

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Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Is Dead

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The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz, has died at the age of 82.

According to a statement from the Royal Court, the revered cleric passed away on Tuesday morning.

Born in Mecca in November 1943, Sheikh Abdulaziz rose to become one of the most influential religious authorities in the Kingdom.

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He served as head of the General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta, as well as the Supreme Council of the Muslim World League.

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He was the third cleric to occupy the office of Grand Mufti after Sheikh Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Shaikh and Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz.

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In its tribute, the Royal Court said King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had extended condolences to the Sheikh’s family, the people of Saudi Arabia, and the wider Muslim world.

“With his passing, the Kingdom and the Islamic world have lost a distinguished scholar who made significant contributions to the service of science, Islam, and Muslims,” the statement read.

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A funeral prayer is scheduled to be held at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh after the Asr prayer on Tuesday.

King Salman has also directed that funeral prayers be observed simultaneously at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and in all mosques across the Kingdom.

The Grand Mufti is regarded as Saudi Arabia’s most senior and authoritative religious figure. Appointed by the King, the officeholder also chairs the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas.

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Antitrust Trial: US Asks Court To Break Up Google’s Ad Business

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Google faces a fresh federal court test on Monday as US government lawyers ask a judge to order the breakup of the search engine giant’s ad technology business.

The lawsuit is Google’s second such test this year, following a similar government demand to split up its empire that was shot down by a judge earlier this month.

Monday’s case focuses specifically on Google’s ad tech “stack” — the tools that website publishers use to sell ads and that advertisers use to buy them.

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In a landmark decision earlier this year, Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema agreed with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that Google maintained an illegal grip on this market.

READ ALSO:Google Fined $36m In Australia Over Anticompetitive Search Deals

Monday’s trial is set to determine what penalties and changes Google must implement to undo its monopoly.

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According to filings, the US government will argue that Google should spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations. The DOJ will also ask that after the divestitures are complete, Google be banned from operating an ad exchange for 10 years.

Google will argue that the divestiture demands go far beyond the court’s findings, are technically unfeasible, and would be harmful to the market and smaller businesses.

We’ve said from the start that DOJ’s case misunderstands how digital advertising works and ignores how the landscape has dramatically evolved, with increasing competition and new entrants,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.

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In a similar case in Europe, the European Commission, the EU’s antitrust enforcer, earlier this month fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.47 billion) over its control of the ad tech market.

Brussels ordered behavioral changes, drawing criticism that it was going easy on Google as it had previously indicated that a divestiture may be necessary.

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This remedy phase of the US trial follows a first trial that found Google operated an illegal monopoly. It is expected to last about a week, with the court set to meet again for closing arguments a few weeks later.

The trial begins in the same month that a separate judge rejected a government demand that Google divest its Chrome browser, in an opinion that was largely seen as a victory for the tech giant.

That was part of a different case, also brought by the US Department of Justice, in which the tech giant was found responsible for operating an illegal monopoly, this time in the online search space.

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Instead of a major breakup of its business, Google was required to share data with rivals as part of its remedies.

The US government had pushed for Chrome’s divestment, arguing the browser serves as a crucial gateway to the internet that brings in a third of all Google web searches.

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Shares in Google-parent Alphabet have skyrocketed by more than 20 percent since that decision.

Judge Brinkema has said in pre-trial hearings that she will closely examine the outcome of the search trial when assessing her path forward in her own case.

These cases are part of a broader bipartisan government campaign against the world’s largest technology companies. The US currently has five pending antitrust cases against such companies.

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AFP

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