Chester Bennington's Teen Son Tyler Responds To The Conspiracy Theory About His Dad's Death
Conspiracy theorists won't leave him and his family alone despite his father's tragic passing being 6 years in the past.
TikTok / Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock Chester Bennington's son Tyler is keeping his dad's memory alive and using his story to raise awareness about mental illness — all while hitting back at fans for spreading upsetting misinformation about his father.
On July 20, 2017, the lead singer of the beloved-by-many band, Linkin Park, passed away at 41 years old from an apparent suicide, but many conspiracy theorists believe there’s something far more nefarious going on behind his death.
Unfortunately, since there aren’t many outlets for these conspiracy theorists to let out their grief, Chester’s 17-year-old son, Tyler, has been subjected to hearing crazy ideas surrounding the reason behind his father’s passing.
Chester Bennington's son, Tyler, responded to the theories that his dad was murdered.
On March 30, 2023, Tyler posted a video to his TikTok (@thetylerbennington) responding to a comment that read “your dad didn’t kill himself! I think you know that though! Your dad was a hero to many people. He was doing good in this world, and they didn’t like,” with the comment being cut short there.
“This is the bulls--t that I will not be dealing with on my page,” Tyler said in response. “This person is getting blocked.” Level-headed and cool, Tyler goes into explaining why this conspiracy theorist's behavior on his account is unacceptable.
“I’m a child. This is inappropriate to post or comment on my posts — on anybody’s posts for that matter. There’s no evidence [for] this, there’s no evidence to any of these theories that have been made. These are just vain attempts to sensationalize.”
He believes that people like this are turning what was truly a “tragedy” into a story that they can tell other people, ending the video by telling the person who left that comment to “get a life.”
A study from The British Psychological Society done in April 2022 suggests that people who use maladaptive coping strategies to deal with stress are prone to fostering conspiracy beliefs. It could be possible that these people, nearly 6 years later, are still having trouble grieving the loss of their beloved idol.
What they don’t understand, is that this was someone’s father. They’re allowed to point fingers all they want, but doing it on Tyler’s TikTok page is not the way to cope.
“I will not tolerate this kind of behavior about me, my family, or any fan on my page,” he wrote in the caption. “It pains me to know that there are still people in the world who listen to this attention-seeking slander.”
Put simply, conspiracy theorists believe that Chester had insider knowledge of the Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking ring. Many believed that he, alongside his friend Chris Cornell who had died of suicide just months before, was prepared to release damning information about who was involved.
There’s no evidence to confirm that this was true, and the conspiracy theory consists of people linking loose chains of symbols in the band’s music videos and claiming that Chester looked exactly like John Podesta — who served as White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and Counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015.
The rumors and theories are baseless and Chester’s death had been confirmed by the coroner to be a suicide by hanging, but that won’t stop people from commenting on Tyler’s videos to this day about the alleged “suspicions” behind the tragedy.
RELATED: The Sad Truth About The Suicides Of Chester Bennington & Chris Cornell
Tyler Bennington is Linkin Park frontman Chester's youngest son.
Tyler's mother is Talinda Ann Bentley, a former Playboy model with whom Chester had three children. Tyler has two younger twin sisters named Lily and Lila, who were born in 2011.
Chester also has three older children — Jaime, born in 1996, from his relationship with Elka Brand, Isaiah, Brand's son who was born in 1997 and later adopted by Chester, and Dravian, born in 2002, whom Chester shares with his first wife Samantha Marie Olit.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.