Video game influencer Alex Cimo‘s wife and mother are seemingly at odds over the way his death at age 32 from stage 4 colon cancer was publicly announced.
Earlier this week, the Yu-Gi-Oh! content creator’s mom, Mary-Frances Alonzo, shared with her LinkedIn followers in a now-deleted message that Cimo died following a lengthy battle with cancer.
“Today, I have a very personal post to share as many of my colleagues are familiar with our journey. Last night, my amazing son, Alex Cimo, left us after a hard-fought battle with Stage IV colon cancer,” Alonzo wrote. “Words cannot describe the magnificent human being that he was.”
Alonzo described her son as “so talented, brilliant and wise beyond his 32 years” while marveling at the way Cimo grew his social media following. (Cimo was popular among Yu-Gi-Oh! fans for his strategy guides, giveaways and deck profiles.)
“I want to thank all of you for your unwavering support and prayers over the past year and a half,” she concluded. “You have touched my heart and carried us through the unimaginable. I feel so very blessed.”
Alonzo’s memorial post seemingly set off some turmoil within her family as Alex’s wife, Bryttni, complained about the death announcement via social media. (Bryttni did not directly reference her mother-in-law by name in her multiple X posts.)
“A bit frustrated that the death of my husband was leaked without my consent. I had a specific plan in place to announce it when I was ready after I gave myself and our family space to grieve. I know that you all loved him dearly,” she tweeted on Thursday, June 4. “Alex was very forthcoming about his health journey with all of you and I want to honor that but I am not ready at this moment. I will make a video with further details and post it on his channel at a later date.”
On Friday, June 5, Bryttni shared a lengthier statement to explain why she was caught off guard.
“Alex passed very suddenly on Tuesday,” she wrote. “As you may imagine, I am still very raw from my bereavement and I was not ready to share this pain with the world so soon. I was not aware the LinkedIn post was going to be made.”
Per Bryttni, she’d made her own plans “in accordance with Alex’s wishes” to wait “a couple of weeks” before making any announcement so that her “pain felt a bit more dulled.”
“Alex was always very forthcoming about his health journey with all of you and I want to continue to honor that and answer some questions you may have,” she acknowledged. “I greatly appreciate the outpouring of love for Alex. I know that he touched the lives of many of you.”
Bryttni told her followers that — on top of her grief — she was dealing with “someone try[ing] to hack” her X account as well as figuring out how Alex’s obituary was written by “someone I do not know” in San Francisco.
“I have a lot of things that I must take care of in addition to nursing my grief,” she explained. “Just know that I will answer your questions when I am ready.”
Alex was open with his fans about his cancer journey over the last few years. In April, he commemorated his birthday by celebrating how he’d defied the odds following a stage 4 cancer colon diagnosis.
“In mid-march, the ‘best cancer doctors in the United States’ told me that I only had days to live,” he tweeted on April 30. “I refused to accept my fate, so I fought, and fought, and fucking fought harder than anything I’ve had to fight for in my entire life.”
Alex went on, “Now, six weeks after I was marked for death, against insurmountable odds, I can proudly say that I have proved them wrong. Recovery is a painfully slow process, but I grow stronger each day. Yesterday was my birthday, a reminder that time is precious yet finite. Always keep fighting, never give up. You are more powerful than you realize.”
