Behind her glamorous public persona, Sahara Ray had struggled privately in the years before her tragic death from a suspected overdose.
“Sahara had struggled with mental health issues in recent years, and it was heartbreaking to see someone we loved so deeply experience so much pain,” Ray’s good friend Jessica Serfaty exclusively told Page Six.
The “Days of Our Lives” alum — who met Ray in 2015 on the set of DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean” music video, becoming inseparable for the next 11 years — explained that the late swimsuit designer was “starting a whole new chapter in her life” after welcoming a baby girl just 11 months before her death.
“I think it’s important to remember that someone’s life can contain both extraordinary beauty and profound pain,” Serfaty said, adding, “One doesn’t necessarily erase the other.”
Even during his most difficult times, Ray had a close-knit circle of friends and family who stood by him.
“His mother, Gretchen, who is truly an earth angel, and I met several times to figure out how best to support the Sahara,” Serfaty said. “There were times when we gathered the people closest to her, trying to create a circle of love, stability and support around her when we felt she needed it most.”
She added: “When you love someone who is struggling, you desperately want to find the right words, the right solution, the one thing that could make everything better. »
Despite all their efforts and love, Serfaty said there are “no easy answers” on how to help.
“But I hope Sahara always knew how deeply loved she was,” Serfaty said. “There were so many people who cared for her, who showed up for her, and who wanted nothing more than to see her happy and at peace.”
When asked what she wished people understood about Ray’s struggles, Serfaty said she hoped people would recognize how alone someone can feel, even when they are “surrounded by love.”
“You can have family, friends, a room full of people who adore you, or even thousands or millions of strangers following your life and celebrating your beauty, and still feel completely alone,” she said, referring to Ray’s nearly 1 million followers on Instagram.
“I think we sometimes confuse being admired with being understood, or being surrounded by people and feeling connected to them. But those are very different things,” Serfaty said.
The soap actress, 35, explained that no one really knows what we’re fighting against behind closed doors.
“If there’s one thing I hope people take away from Sahara’s story, it’s to lead with compassion. To be gentler with each other. To look out for the people who seem to have it all, the ones who make everyone laugh, the ones who seem to shine the brightest,” she said.
“Because sometimes, it is precisely these people who need our tenderness the most. »
Serfaty hopes Ray will be remembered for the joy she brought to those around her, rather than the challenges she faced towards the end.
“She was so much more than the difficult chapters of her life,” she said, describing her late friend as a woman full of “laughter, adventure, mischief, tenderness and magic.”
“She was the girl who turned an ordinary afternoon into a memory you would keep for the rest of your life,” Serfaty recalls.
She also remembers Ray’s love of animals and nature, his generosity toward others and his “beautiful” ability to make life “a little less ordinary.”
“I hope people remember the girl who danced on the beach, the fairy wandering in the redwoods, the friend who always made room for one more person at her table,” she said. “Most of all, I hope they remember that she was a human being even before she was a face on a screen or a story in a headline.”
Ray died Sunday after suffering a suspected fentanyl overdose in Los Angeles. She was 34 years old.
“She passed away last night surrounded by her family at the hospital. She was so loved,” her family told TMZ in a statement Monday.
The model was reportedly placed on life support before her family made the heartbreaking decision to take her off.
The official cause of her death has not yet been confirmed, although a source close to Ray told the Daily Mail that she died from an apparent fentanyl overdose.
Her shocking death came just months after she welcomed her first child, a daughter named Snow, in January with a man named Michael Bradley Dow.
Sahara – who has previously dated Justin Bieber, Mod Sun and Cody Simpson – is the daughter of legendary surfer Tony Ray and real estate agent Gretchen Gia Bach.
Bach shared a heartbreaking update on how she was grieving the loss of her eldest daughter in an Instagram Story Tuesday evening.
“Lying on an Airbnb bed somewhere in LA at 1am wearing Sahara’s clothes and sobbing while I read and repost the love letters and tributes to my oldest daughter,” she wrote with a broken heart emoji.
Earlier in the day, Sahara’s younger sister, Ruby Ray, remembered her as a “force of nature” whose larger-than-life personality and loving spirit left a lasting impression on all who knew her.
Gn entert
