Cleto Escobedo, a longtime friend of Jimmy Kimmel, recently passed away. His sudden death reportedly took a significant toll on the late-night host emotionally.
“Jimmy has gone into a spiral,” a source told the newspaper Sphere magazine. “He’s known Cleto since he was a kid, and he never expected him to be gone so quickly.”
“It makes Jimmy face his own mortality and question everything. He’s in a very dark place,” the insider adds.
The report comes after Jimmy faced criticism over his comments on the murder of commentator Charlie Kirk.
“Jimmy is back on the air, so a lot of people assume he’s over this and feels like a champion, but that’s not the case. He’s feeling very defeated,” the tipster muttered.
But the flood of hate he received, the insider points out, is too much for even him to handle, despite his experience with criticism.
“He’s used to people not liking him, but the hatred was greater than he ever expected. He received death threats. No one should have to put up with that.”
Now with Clebo’s death, “Jimmy is tired, he’s grieving and he’s completely burned out. Just by looking at him you can tell he’s barely keeping it together,” the source sounds the alarm.
The insider warning continues: “People in his life are begging him to step back from the show before the job eats him alive. They’re terrified that if he doesn’t make a change soon, the stress will destroy him. He’s never been so down.”
Cleto died on November 11. He was 59.
