Alan Thicke’s Hidden Heartbreak: Star’s Alcoholic Mom Died Alone!

The world was shocked when beloved TV star Alan Thicke died of a sudden heart attack on Dec. 13, 2016, while playing hockey with his son. But the "Growing Pains" actor had never gotten over the tragic loss of his own mother, who died as an alcoholic who couldn't keep a roof over her head. "Mom never hurt anyone but herself," he said after his mother Joan passed away at the age of 71 on Sept. 16, 1999 — still outliving her celebrity son by two years!

"I was on my way and working long before she developed her problem," said Alan, whose mother raised him and her siblings along after divorcing his dad in 1953. "Some people just can't completely overcome it. They become kind of a ticking time bomb!"

For years, Alan — along with his brother Todd and his sister Joanne — tried to help their mother beat booze from her home in their native Canada. Joan's chronic alcoholism was so bad that she even kept being evicted by fed-up landlords. Her children finally created a trust fund just to be sure that her expenses were regularly paid.

Joan's body was found while she was living in an apartment in Toronto, and Alan took took some comfort in having the luxury of being able to take care of her. That included six trips that he made between Los Angeles and Canada in the final year of her life — with his mom passing just five days after his sudden bizarre split from second wife Gina Tolleson (pictured).

Alan would work with several charities to benefit addicts in the years after Joan's death. "I loved my mother to death," said Alan at the time, adding: "Over the past year, we had our best visits ever. It was a very good year for connection for Mom and I — but I'm mad that we don't have her anymore."