Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte was ‘nearly broke’ and believed his fiancée deserved ‘someone better’ as his final days are revealed

Published: 04:34 EDT, 14 October 2026 | Updated: 05:22 EDT, 14 October 2026

In a final interview days before his death, Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte made a heartbreaking admission: he could barely bring himself to watch the show that made him famous.

The actor, diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age three, said seeing himself play Walter White Jr opposite Bryan Cranston could send him into a mental ‘spiral’ whenever he spotted a mistake – revealing: ‘I dwell in it.’

Yet even without watching it, he conceded he was still chasing the shadow of one of television’s most celebrated dramas. ‘I want to top Breaking Bad,’ he said in a final interview on October 5.

Problems: A Daily Mail source claimed Mitte’s money troubles had cast a shadow over his wedding plans with fiancée Kennedy Suarez: The couple in June 2025

‘That’s the hardest… I set a bar for myself as a young man that is kind of unobtainable. And I tell people, it’s a long way down from the top of the mountain.’

Five days later, the actor died by suicide at age 34 in Brownsville, Texas.

Meanwhile, RJ’s heartbroken ex-girlfriend has paid tribute to him.

His former teenage girlfriend, Saint Sasha, shared poignant throwback snaps of the young couple, saying he was ‘the first person to show me how a man is supposed to treat a woman.’

She wrote: ‘I fell in love for the first time when I was 18. RJ was the first person to show me how a man is supposed to treat a woman.

‘He was the first partner to build me up and make me feel unstoppable. He had one of the kindest and rarest hearts I’d ever had the privilege to experience, and he was still a friend. I can’t believe this is real.

Devastated: The heartbroken ex-girlfriend of Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte has paid tribute to the actor after he died by suicide aged 34

‘Never in any lifetime could I forget him and how he made me feel. He was the first and last of his kind.

‘Thank you for everything, endlessly, RJ. I love you, homie.’

Friends of the star have revealed the true depth of his despair.

Convinced he’d never repeat the success he’d enjoyed as a teenager, Mitte was, sources say, panicked over his future and how he might pay for it.

‘RJ couldn’t continue his struggle any longer,’ said one insider close to the star.

‘It took its toll on him mentally. There was almost always a dark cloud hanging over him.’

They added: ‘His inner circle had been worried he’d do something like this for a long time. It was hanging over him 24/7.’

A separate source claimed Mitte’s money troubles had cast a shadow over his wedding plans with fiancée Kennedy Suarez.

‘RJ was nearly broke; he had severe financial problems and was struggling to afford to pay for a nice wedding to his fiancéeé, and that broke his heart,’ they told us.

The actor’s financial woes dated back to his teenage years: at around 17 or 18, after three years working on Breaking Bad, he hired a business manager to handle his earnings and taxes.

He joined the show at 14, when it began in 2007, earning the Screen Actors Guild minimum for the pilot episode. As it grew in popularity, so did the cast’s earnings. Mitte once estimated he’d made between $3million and $5million from the series.

But instead of paying the IRS, Mitte’s manager allegedly pocketed the money and sent forged tax filings.

Mitte later got hit with an IRS tax bill that wiped out his earnings and left him with a debt that took nearly a decade to pay off.

‘It really ruined him,’ the insider said.

Filming the show once offered him respite from the stress, especially when he was on set with Cranston, the sources said.

Classic: Pictured with Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn in Breaking Bad

A source said: ‘He became more and more bitter about the industry. He’s been in a very dark place for a long time.’ Pictured with Cranston in 2012

‘When he was working with Cranston in particular, it gave him a big lift. You could see it in his face. His spirit was strong,’ said our insider.

But when the series ended in 2013, he had nowhere to escape to and for Mitte, the industry quickly became a source of frustration and angst.

‘As soon as he finished his final episode, his downward spiral started,’ the insider said. ‘He kept saying he’d never get another role anywhere near as good.’

Indeed, in a text dated April 7, 2017, obtained by the Daily Mail, Mitte described uncomfortable encounters with casting directors.

‘When I go for a part, they sometimes tell me that it’s not a character with a disability, and I’m like, why can’t the character be disabled?’ he wrote. ‘They get real uncomfortable when I say that.’

Mitte believed casting an actor with a disability could add depth to a character without requiring the entire storyline to revolve around his disability.

‘He hated auditioning and being judged,’ said the insider close to Mitte. ‘Although he was a big talent, he always felt his disability got in the way. He often thought he was getting auditions out of sympathy.’

After Breaking Bad, Mitte fought for roles in smaller productions.

Parts such as his appearance on Switched at Birth or his voice and live-action work in The Guardians of Justice gave him steady, respected acting jobs – but they aired on niche or smaller platforms compared to AMC’s prime-time juggernaut.

Much of his highest-profile work after the show was outside traditional acting entirely – serving as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and pushing for better representation of disabled actors in Hollywood.

‘I can do any role, but some of [the casting agents and directors] are a******* who won’t even look at me,’ he wrote in another message in April 2017. ‘I want to put them on blast, but I won’t now.’

As recently as July 2025, Mitte was considering a return to the spotlight via reality television, telling a friend he had softened to the idea of appearing on a show like Dancing with the Stars to challenge assumptions about what performers with cerebral palsy could do.

The insder added: ‘RJ was angry he could not make enough money in acting. This kid had so many struggles. He got a bad break in life’

They added: ‘RJ was nearly broke, he had severe financial problems and was struggling to afford to pay for a nice wedding to his fiancee, and that broke his heart’

They added: ‘Although he and his fiancée Kennedy were in the middle of planning their wedding, he thought she deserved someone better. He didn’t think he was good enough’

Our source said: ‘He became more and more bitter about the industry. He’s been in a very dark place for a long time.’

Friends say part of that bitterness stemmed from money, and his belief that acting had never paid him what he thought a lifelong career should have.

‘RJ was angry he could not make enough money in acting,’ said our second insider.

‘He had started at a young age and acted his whole life, so he didn’t understand why the roles were not better. RJ wanted to be a big star. He wanted a nice house, but he never got it. He had to live modestly.’

The source believes Mitte may have earned far more had he pursued modeling.

‘He probably would have had way more money if he had just modeled,’ they said. ‘He made good money modeling for Gap and Vivienne Westwood, and he had the handsome face for it, but he wanted to act.’

Even a bright spot in his life, his relationship with fiancée Suarez, whom he proposed to in 2025, could not fully lift the cloud.

Suarez works remotely in human resources and frequently travels with Mitte to work on different endeavors in his career.

He proposed in October 2025, not long after her 30th birthday.

‘Happy birthday to my everything, you are so amazing,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe all the things we do together; you make me better and want to be better!!!’

Yet according to our first insider, the mental struggle and feelings of inadequacy soon began to take over.

‘Although he and his fiancée Kennedy were in the middle of planning their wedding, he thought she deserved someone better. He didn’t think he was good enough.

‘He’d been in and out of therapy for years. Sadly, all the treatment didn’t help in the end.’

Our other source added: ‘This kid had so many struggles. He got a bad break in life.’

Despite his private turmoil, Mitte managed to put on a brave face in his final days.

Smile: Mitte was seemingly in high spirits at his final red carpet appearance – the premiere of his movie Talking to Strangers on September 30

At his final red-carpet appearance, the premiere of his movie Talking to Strangers at Beverly Hills’ Fine Arts Theatre on September 30, he flashed a Hollywood smile for the cameras.

Eight days before his death, he made his final public appearance alongside Breaking Bad co-star Luis Moncada, 49, at a hot-air-balloon festival in New Mexico.

To those watching, he seemed to be coping. But those closest to him say the struggle had never truly gone away.

In an emotional interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Moncada described his final moments with Mitte and acknowledged that he had been ‘struggling’ and ‘pulled in all kinds of directions’. However, he declined to elaborate out of respect for his friend.

News of his death has left his inner circle reeling – none more so than his former on-screen father.

Cranston, 70, said he is ‘in deep despair’ after Mitte’s passing, sharing a heartbreaking Instagram tribute: ‘I’ll miss you, son.’

The actor said it was ‘especially devastating’ that Mitte ‘took his own life’, revealing that the pair had recently been texting and making plans to meet for lunch.

‘I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future,’ Cranston lamented.

For those who loved him, the question lingers: Was there more that could have been done – or was the battle simply one he could no longer fight?

‘He’s at peace now, if that’s any consolation for Kennedy and all those who loved him,’ the insider said.

The Daily Mail contacted Mitte’s representatives for comment.