Pete Davidson of Saturday Night Live is accounted for after alarming Instagram post

Davidson (above) posted a troubling message that began: “I really don’t want to be on this earth anymore.” PHOTO: AFP
Pete Davidson and Ariana Grande at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2018. PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - Pete Davidson, the Saturday Night Live star and ex-fiance of singer Ariana Grande, appeared to have deleted his Instagram account on Saturday (Dec 15) shortly after posting a troubling message that began: "I really don't want to be on this earth anymore."

A police officer was sent to the Manhattan studios of Saturday Night Live to check on him and, separately, an NBC representative contacted the New York Police Department to say that Davidson was at work and was fine, police said.

In his deleted post, Davidson wrote: "I'm doing my best to stay here for you but I actually don't know how much longer I can last. All I've ever tried to do was help people. Just remember I told you so."

The note ended with a heart emoji.

His post was immediately followed by an outpouring of support on social media, and his name started trending on Twitter.

Davidson has been open about his struggles with borderline personality disorder.

"I've spoken about BPD and being suicidal publicly only in the hopes that it will help bring awareness and help kids like myself who don't want to be on this earth," he wrote on Instagram this month.

"No matter how hard the internet or anyone tries to make me kill myself. I won't. I'm upset I even have to say this."

In a different post, he applauded Kanye West for speaking out about mental health.

"I can't explain to you enough how difficult and scary it is to be honest about stuff like this," Davidson wrote.

Davidson started dating Grande in May, and they became engaged in June. He described to Variety how he proposed to her in bed.

"I didn't want to do something corny," he said. "We were in bed hanging, after watching a movie. I was like, 'Will you marry me?' It was really dope."

In September, Grande's former boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died from what appeared to be a drug overdose. The next month, Grande and Davidson ended their relationship.

Davidson is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live. His father, Scott, a firefighter, was killed during the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. Davidson was seven at the time of his father's death and has his badge number tattooed on his left arm.

Davidson's mother told The New York Times in 2015 that her son was "sad" while growing up. He attended three high schools because of problems getting along with other children but started doing standup comedy when he was 16.

Davidson, who has Crohn's disease, went to rehab in 2016 but later announced he had discovered he had a borderline personality disorder that left him "depressed all the time," he said on "WTF," a podcast with Marc Maron, in 2017.

He said the death of his father had affected him greatly.

"My big thing is trust," Davidson told Maron.

"One day he was here and the next day he was gone."

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