What Occurred to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes? Revisiting Her Loss of life 21 Years Later Alongside New Doc

Picture Supply: Getty / Jeffrey Mayer

TLC is likely one of the biggest woman teams in historical past. The Atlanta-based trio, made up of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, rose to stardom in the course of the Nineteen Nineties after releasing their platinum debut single, “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” which acquired a 1993 Grammy nomination for finest R&B tune. Following their preliminary success, TLC despatched 9 of their singles to the highest 10 of the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart — 4 of which went No. 1: “Creep,” “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” and “Unpretty.”

Now, greater than three a long time because the group first made their mark, Watkins and Thomas are wanting again at their prolific careers with the discharge of their new Lifetime documentary, “TLC Ceaselessly,” which premieres on June 3. Based on the documentary’s official description, “TLC Ceaselessly” is not going to solely contact on the group’s historic success however their greatest downfalls as effectively, together with “inside fallouts, exterior assaults, chapter, and sickness,” which threatened to tear the trio aside. The duo may even open up about Lopes’s dying in 2002.

Be taught extra about what occurred to Lopes forward.

How Did Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes Die?

On April 25, 2002, Lopes died in a automobile accident simply weeks earlier than her thirty first birthday on Could 27. Based on The New York Times, the accident came about whereas Lopes was filming a documentary in Honduras. The singer was driving a Mitsubishi Montero SUV and touring from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula when she misplaced management, per MTV News. The outlet additionally reported that, in accordance with authorities in Jutiapa, Lopes was not licensed to drive internationally and was apparently rushing when she misplaced management. The automobile crashed in Roma.

“The police stated it veered off the highway and turned over a number of instances,” The New York Instances reported on the time. Whereas Lopes died on the scene, the automobile’s seven different passengers, which included Lopes’s sister, Raina, and brother, Ronald, survived.

Notably, the incident occurred simply three weeks after Lopes was concerned in one other deadly crash that took the lifetime of a Honduran boy named Bayron Isaul Fuentes Lopez. Lopes’s assistant, Stephanie Patterson, was behind the wheel when the automobile struck the kid. Following the accident, Lopes reportedly paid for the boy’s hospital and funeral bills, per Entertainment Weekly.

What Occurred to TLC After Lisa Lopes’s Loss of life?

After Lopes’s dying, Watkins and Thomas launched a press release (via People), saying, “We had all grown up collectively and have been as shut as a household. Right now now we have really misplaced our sister.”

Regardless of the very fact the pair have been hurting, they felt compelled to complete the group’s fourth album, “3D,” which they dropped six months after the accident in October. “We wished to complete what the three of us had began as finest as we might beneath that sort of strain and ache,” Thomas instructed USA Right now (by way of Biography) about their resolution to get again within the recording studio.

Watkins and Thomas then continued as a duo and even launched a fifth album, titled “TLC,” in June 2017. Right now, the pair are nonetheless lively as TLC and presently acting on their “Hot Summer Nights” tour, which kicked off with Shaggy on June 1.