Steve From 'Blue's Clues' Reveals How Death Rumors Hit Him In The Most Painful Way

Stories about the Nickelodeon personality dying under terrible circumstances persisted for years after he left the show in 2001.

Original “Blue’s Clues” host Steve Burns says long-running internet rumors about him dying severely deepened his struggle with depression.

The former Nickelodeon personality opened up about his mental health while appearing on Rainn Wilson’s “Soul Boom” podcast on Thursday, where he told “The Office” alum that the “urban legend” eventually tricked him into thinking he might be better off dead.

“I was in kind of the throes of this depression after I left the show,” he explained. “But what a lot of people don’t understand is that, that during the show, the internet was beginning to internet, and the world decided, or a large portion of the world decided, that I had died.”

While the bogus stories behind his alleged death ran the gamut, baseless claims that he had died of an overdose or by suicide made the already-struggling Burns feel even more hopeless.

The suicide rumors were “not what you want to hear when you’re severely clinically depressed,” he said. “But when a gazillion people you’ve never met tell you that you’re dead, it’s bad when you’re severely clinically depressed. And there was nothing I could do about this rumor. I mean, Nickelodeon didn’t like it, either.”