On Sunday night Jamie Bartlett pulled his longtime girlfriend Rosa Onious close and told her how much he loved her. He told her she was his whole world and he was glad to be spending his life with her.
Just hours later he was gone.
The acting veteran, best known for his role as David Genaro on the hit e.tv soapie Rhythm City, died at Onious’ Johannesburg home on Monday afternoon. His death sent shock waves across the nation and led to a flood of emotional tributes.
Those closest to the star have been inconsolable. Overcome by grief, they have been unable to speak in tribute to him.
Speaking exclusively to TshisaLIVE, Bartlett’s partner of nearly four years recounted how she had gone to wake the star from an afternoon nap, only to find he wasn’t breathing.
“He said he was tired. For two years we knew it as his couch. He liked taking afternoon naps on the same spot on the couch. It is his couch. He did that for a long time. It was a norm for us. We’d switch off the TV and move to the dining room. He would lie there and snore a lot,” Onious said.
“Later on my mother said: ‘Jamie is not snoring. That’s weird.’
“That’s when I was like, it is 5 o’clock, time for him to go to the pub to be with his friends. He goes there every day at 5 o’clock to be with his boys. I went to wake him by calling ‘Jamie’ and he was not responding.
“Then I shook him and I’m like, ‘Wake up’, and he did not respond. I called my mom to try wake him. My mom tried everything. He did not wake up.
“I called the ambulance. They took forever to come but luckily I know a friend who knows First Help and they came within 30 minutes. They tried to resuscitate him but it was too late,” she said, weeping uncontrollably.
An autopsy performed on Tuesday revealed the star suffered a cardiac arrest.
Bartlett made his last public appearance on Sunday evening as a guest host at media personality Somizi Mhlongo’s African Cuisine event in Pretoria.
When the couple returned home and settled in for the night, he reached over to give his love a kiss.
“When we were falling asleep he told me how much he loved me. ‘I love you so much. Ever since I got divorced you’re the only one I really loved. You mean the world to me.’ Everything he said to me was all positive and love. He said we should sleep in and spend time together,” she said while sobbing.
Onious said nothing could have prepared her for losing the love of her life.
“He didn’t get sick. We were just talking and laughing. There were no signs. Jamie was a health freak. He took care of himself.
“Every day gets harder and harder because he’s not there, I just know he’s not there to wake me up with kisses, call my name. It is so painful.”
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