Fleetwood Mac keyboardist Christine McVie's real cause of death has been determined months after her death.
Details regarding McVie's passing had not been released publicly, including what led to her demise. Her family sought privacy as they dealt with the extremely painful time.
Months after her death, more details about McVie's passing have been released.
Christine McVie's Real Cause of Death: Update
The Blast obtained McVie's official death certificate and will, revealing that the Fleetwood Mac singer was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer before her death. However, it was noted that she died of a massive stroke.
The document said she had a "metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin." According to the National Cancer Institute, carcinoma of unknown primary is a rare disease in which the cancer cells are detected, but the place where it began cannot be identified.
Although McVie suffered from the dreaded disease, she primarily died of an ischemic stroke. Her death certificate listed cancer as the secondary cause of her death.
Ischemic stroke, per the American Stroke Association, occurs when a vessel supplying blood to a person's brain is blocked or obstructed. It accounts for 87 percent of all types of strokes. Irregular heartbeat, heart valve problems, heart attack, blood-clotting disorders, blood vessel inflammation, heart attack, or an infection of the heart muscle can cause it.
Christine McVie Knew She Was in Bad Shape Months Before Her Death
In the months leading to her death, McVie said she could not tour again with Fleetwood Mac because her "body was already weak."
"I don't feel physically up for it. I'm in quite bad health. I've got a chronic back problem, which debilitates me. I stand up to play the piano, so I don't know if I could actually physically do it. What's that saying? The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak," she told Rolling Stone.
Her cancer diagnosis was still not known at that time, but several news outlets claimed said she had been suffering from scoliosis.
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McVie also struggled with drug addiction during the 1970s and 1980s, when the substance was normalized. She opened up about it in the book, "Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters."
She recounted the time she stayed up for three days and consumed the white powder excessively she almost suffered a heart attack. She soon quit alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes and chewed nicotine gum instead.
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