TikTok star Mackenzie Paul has died at age 26 after a three-year battle with cancer.
Her husband, Brandon Paul, shared the tragic news in a 10-minute Facebook video on Thursday.
“As you know, or as most of you know, Kenzie is in heaven now,” Brandon said through tears. “Selfishly, I wish she was here, still with me, and it’s going to take the whole rest of my life to get over this.”
“But the one thing I am really, really happy about is that she’s not in pain anymore,” he continued. “The past two and a half years, I’ve been blessed to be married to the best woman out there. I also had to see her go through some, some very, very tough times. She was pretty transparent when it came to social media. But there’re some times where she was in the ICU and she was not breathing on her own, where, you know, none of us really shared. It was a miracle that she made it this far.”
Brandon, who admitted that Mackenzie’s death “doesn’t even feel real,” described his late wife as his “rock” and “best friend.”
“During this whole past two and a half years, I tried not to take any day for granted,” he stated. “She was the strongest, hard working, most disciplined woman I’ve ever met. She made me a better man, a better husband, every single day.”
Brandon said that on the morning of Mackenzie’s death, she “wasn’t doing that well” and had to go to the ER and then the ICU, where she passed away.
“It’s crazy how fast the leukemia spread,” he added. “That summer when she was in remission, I felt a relief, like it was over. And then that nightmare began when she told me it came back. So our goal was to just spend as much time together as possible and to just do things that she loved.”
Brandon continued, “It was also very, very difficult because she was just getting weaker. But anyone who knows Kenzie knows that she’s a warrior. She’s a fighter and she kept fighting for me and she told me that and I knew that. Selfishly I wanted her to fight, but I also wanted her to be at peace.”
Later in the video, Brandon said his wife “was very close to going and God performed several miracles and allowed Kenzie to stay with me as long as possible.”
“I’m not sure why she had to go through this,” he added. “I’m not sure why this had to happen. But I’m glad I got to spend the past couple years with the love of my life. She’s my everything. She always will be. She’ll always be my best friend. She’s a rock star. I love her so much.”
Mackenzie publicly revealed her battle with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Oct. 2023.
At the time, Mackenzie was 23 and in the second year of medical school at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
She told People that she fainted one day in class and woke up to five nurses standing around her. When she felt dizzy again a week later, she called her primary care doctor who suggested she get labs and bloodwork done. Several weeks later, Mackenzie was diagnosed with AML.
According to the Mayo Clinic, AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Symptoms include fever, pain in the bones, back and stomach, paleness, frequent infections, easy bruising and more.
Mackenzie documented her cancer battle on TikTok, where she had over 28,000 followers.
She shared her final video days before her death, where she told fans she was losing her voice.
“My entire mouth is just really painful right now,” she said. “It sucks because I have an appetite and I’m trying to eat, but it literally hurts so bad it’s bringing me to tears. So if you could please be praying for me.”
