'Our grief is still very fresh': 'Jeopardy!' star Mattea Roach breaks silence on dad's tragic death due to brain aneurysm
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Jeopardy!' Masters 2023 is about to conclude on May 24 with three finalists eyeing the big prize money of $500,000 and the Alex Trebek Trophy. Andrew He, James Holzhaeur, Matt Amodio, and Mattea Roach are all standing toe to toe, fighting hard to land the big prize. But for Mattea, the will to win the prize is a little more personal. Their journey to this stage of the competition has been extremely difficult, especially because of the untimely demise of their father, Philip Henry Roach.
Philip died at the age of 57 of a brain aneurysm at her family home in Canada when Mattea was at the set of ‘Jeopardy!’ Until now, they haven’t been able to confront and embrace the grief of their father’s death but recently, before the big semifinals, Mattea finally opened up about their father’s death in public.
RELATED ARTICLES
🧵(1/8) In one of my contestant anecdotes on tonight’s Jeopardy Masters, I’m talking about my dad. I’ve done this many times on the show before, but this time I’m speaking in past tense bc my dad died at the start of this month pic.twitter.com/JFFCPaJI5e
— Mattea Roach (@mattearoach) May 23, 2023
A heartfelt tribute
Mattea took to Twitter and wrote a lengthy thread with a few throwback photos of them with their father. One of them when they were growing up while the other showed them with their father at present. They wrote, “In one of my contestant anecdotes on tonight’s Jeopardy Masters, I’m talking about my dad. I’ve done this many times on the show before, but this time I’m speaking in the past tense because my dad died at the start of this month. I wanted to acknowledge my dad in the context of tonight’s game firstly bc he was the subject of the first ever contestant anecdote I ever told on Jeopardy!”
They clearly mentioned that if they get a chance to speak on ‘Jeopardy!’, even for a short duration, it would be about their father. “I also wanted to talk about my dad bc he passed away while Masters was in production. I’ll say this on TV tonight but I want to express it again here - I was on the set of Jeopardy when my dad died.” Mattea acknowledged that they were at the sets of ‘Jeopardy!’ Masters and stated, “Short of being at home with family, I cannot imagine a better place to be when receiving such horrific news.” They were extremely delighted to receive the love and support of everyone around them. "My fellow contestants were beyond supportive at the moment, and so many people on the production side of things moved mountains to make sure I could get home to my family and then come back later in the month to finish out the competition.” After this, Mattea just stated that everything that they will be doing on TV this week would be for their father.
How close was Philip Roach to his children?
Philip Roach had four children and they were the greatest joy of his life. He loved and cared for them all. As reported by Nova Scotia Buzz, Phillip graduated from Saint Mary’s University in 1993 with a degree in business and had a career in human resources. He also loved cycling and cooking. Philip loved playing Trivial Pursuit with his children and seems to have passed the bug of rock music to them. Philip and his wife even hosted a watch party at their home for every one of Mattea’s original 23 wins last year in 2022. They decorated their glass front door with a sign that read, “This is Jeopardy!” to show support for their daughter