Woman killed herself after fight with husband about him watching Anthony Joshua boxing match

A housewife committed suicide after a fight with her husband about him watching an Anthony Joshua boxing match live on the family TV, an inquest heard.

Felicity Hyde, 38, had agreed to her husband Chris Hyde inviting friends to their home on a Saturday night to watch Anthony Joshua fight Ukranian Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight title.

The mother-of-two went to bed after the fight started on April 29 but later stormed downstairs and berated the group saying she was trying to sleep and they were "disrespecting her home".

The following day, Felicity, who is a former travel company boss, and her husband, a 46-year old recruitment consultant, had a "heated discussion" in which she mentioned that if they were to divorce she wanted a “massive settlement”.

On Bank Holiday Monday, Mrs Hyde hanged herself in the garage of their family home in Blackpool, Lancs, whilst Mr Hyde was taking their children to a local refuse tip to dump rubbish.

An inquest heard Mrs Hyde had no history of mental illness or depression. But in 2013 she said she was going to kill herself and took an excessive amount of medication.

Her husband told the Blackpool hearing: “Having the friends over for the boxing it was something that had been agreed one month to six weeks before and we had both agreed it. She knew it was happening and it was the first time I had friends over to the house and she agreed to it.

"But after the boxing event she come down stairs and went mad at my friends and saying that she wanted to sleep and that they were disrespecting her house. My friends left and I stayed downstairs for a couple of hours and then went up to bed. She was asleep.

"We did have a discussion the following day but not until the evening and we had a talk about it. She had got up in the morning and seemed in a good mood and had made a sausage sandwich.

“We didn’t end up talking about it until the evening on the Sunday. I said to her: 'I think at my age I shouldn’t have to put up with this behaviour you need to change'.

“But she said: 'if you want to divorce me, I want a massive settlement.' We weren’t having divorce discussions it was something that she had just said - I thought that we were happy. It seemed like a throwaway comment but I ended up sleeping downstairs on Sunday.

"It was not patched up but in hindsight there was nothing at all that could have indicated that she was going to kill herself or self harm."

He said on the Monday he and his wife agreed to complete their children's play area in the garden but he and one of the children noticed a piece of rope hanging from the beam in the garage and he cut it down.

He added: "On the day I went to the tip, Fee said to me ‘I'm going to kill myself’ and I pointed at the children who were playing in the garden and said: 'how can you do such a thing?'

I did go into the garage and saw a string from the beam and I took it down after the child pointed it out. It wasn’t in the shape of a noose or anything so I didn’t think she was being serious.

“I just thought 'why would you say something like that in front of the children'. I had said to her, because I had the day off, that we should finish the children’s play area.

"I needed her help and I didn’t want to waste the day and bicker with her and she agreed that was what we would do.

“I went to the tip with the three children about 11am. I was originally only going to take my eldest daughter to the tip too help with a mattress but Fee came and said why don’t you take the younger two so I said of course no problem.

“She knew we were going to the tip, it normally takes a 40 minute round trip but I was going to get some broken furniture from the office so it took a bit longer

“She had no history of mental health issues at all - but it wasn’t out of character for her to have a go at me and my friends. She had no history of mental health issues at all.

“About four years ago Fee said that she was going to kill herself and took an excessive amount of medication. It made her drowsy for a while.

“There were a couple of occasions that she did say ‘I will kill myself’ but it was never anything real. I was looking through my emails and I came across one from her that said ‘I'll kill myself’.

''Anyone who knew her well knew that she could be over the top about something small but it wasn’t something that she said regularly.

"There was no note but she put something on Facebook saying ‘When you love your family and you get it wrong so much, it hurts.’

“Everyone was enormously surprised by this, she was a very strong willed person. We were happy.

“Everyone who knew her well knew that she could get upset over smallish things but it was always a flash in the pan and she got over it in 10 to 15 minutes.

"A little bit of me can't believe she meant to do it - it was a moment of madness.”

A Home Office post mortem confirmed Mrs Hyde had not taken any alcohol or drugs in the period leading up to her death. Her GP also confirmed she had no previous history of mental illness or depression, and there were no known previous suicide attempts.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, coroner Alan Wilson said: “This is a particularly sad set of circumstances involving a young woman with no significant mental health history or a history of self harm.

"There seems to have been limited evidence of anything like this happening previously. But I am satisfied it was her intention to end her life."