{"id":95422,"date":"2025-08-25T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T20:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95422\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T20:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T20:03:10","slug":"kath-whartons-cause-of-death-rugby-star-found-dead-in-parking-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95422\/","title":{"rendered":"Kath Wharton’s Cause of Death: Rugby Star Found Dead in Parking Lot"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand rugby player Kathleen \u201cKath\u201d Wharton\u2019s cause of death<\/a> has reportedly been revealed nine months after the mom of four was found unresponsive in a McDonald\u2019s parking lot.<\/p>\n

Wharton died at 41 years old from sudden cardiac arrest while she was taking a nap in an Auckland, New Zealand, McDonald\u2019s parking lot \u201cafter a long-haul flight from a rugby tournament in Japan\u201d on November 21, 2024, the New Zealand Herald<\/a> reported on Saturday, August 23, citing associate coroner Hannah Cheeseman\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

The associate coroner also found that Wharton had COVID-19 at the time of her death. The virus, along with the effects of a long flight and jet lag, was deemed a possible contributing factor in the athlete\u2019s death, Fox Sports Australia<\/a> reported. Dr. Kilak Kesha, who conducted the post-mortem, stated that COVID-19 can potentially \u201cunmask\u201d an existing cardiac problem.<\/p>\n

Before her death, Wharton had been in Japan with her husband, Andrew, and their daughter, according to multiple reports. A teammate\u2019s child had lost their passport, so she opted to travel with the child instead of heading back to New Zealand with her family and the rest of her team.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"TikToker
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\n Related: TikTok Star Kyle Marisa Roth\u2019s Cause of Death Revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUPDATE, 8\/20\/24 at 11:55 a.m. ET: TikTok star Kyle Marisa Roth\u2019s cause of death has been revealed four months after her April death. Roth\u2019s death was caused by a cardiac arrhythmia due to myocardial fibrosis, according to Maryland\u2019s Chief Medical Examiner\u2019s report, which was obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, August 20. The publication also reported [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Kath\u2019s flight was direct to Auckland and landed before the other plane. She reportedly went to her family\u2019s vehicle and messaged her husband at 12:10 p.m., saying that she would park at McDonald\u2019s and nap until he and their daughter landed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [Kath] did not arrive to pick him up, or respond to messages and calls, her husband made his way to the McDonald\u2019s. There, [Kath] was located, unresponsive, in her vehicle,\u201d the associate coroner\u2019s report read, per Fox Sports Australia.<\/p>\n

Kath was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:43 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords cannot express the grief we feel at the loss of my darling Kath. She touched so many lives and worked tirelessly for our people, for our tamariki,\u201d Andrew said after his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-1208114924-Kathleen-Wharton\"
\n Kathleen Wharton Jason McCawley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kath played for New Zealand\u2019s women\u2019s rugby league team, the Kiwi Ferns, 14 times between 2008 and 2019, winning one World Cup. She also played three NRLW matches in 2019 for the Warriors, according to Radio New Zealand<\/a> (RNZ).<\/p>\n

In addition to her work on the sports field, Kath was an advocate for her community as the manager of Healthy Families Far North, which aims to \u201cimprove the health of our people where we live, learn, work and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a leader, a protector, she was all about Tino rangatiratanga, she was passionate, she was our big sister, our go-to lady and I can\u2019t even imagine what life is going to look like up here without her, it\u2019s really heartbreaking,\u201d Kath\u2019s colleague Talei Anderson told RNZ.<\/p>\n

Anderson continued, \u201cShe\u2019s inspired many lives, she\u2019s touched many hearts across Northland, she would go to the end and back to ensure we could do our mahi, she was just an amazing person. She was always about giving our rangatahi and tamariki opportunities to thrive. It\u2019s a huge loss for everyone up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tThank You!<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"Chris
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\n Related: The Most Shocking TikTok Star and Influencer Deaths Through the Years<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCourtesy of Chris O\u2019Donnell\/Instagram; Courtesy of Kyle Marisa Roth\/Instagram The deaths of several online stars have shaken the TikTok and influencer community \u2014 and broken the hearts of countless fans \u2014 over the years. Taylor Rousseau Grigg died in October 2024 at the age of 25 after battling undisclosed medical issues. Her husband, Cameron Grigg, [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

The organization honored Kath via Instagram for International Women\u2019s Day in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cKath didn\u2019t just work in systems change; she lived it. She was relentless in her pursuit of equity and always hustling to shift resources and power into the hands of those who needed them most,\u201d the post read. \u201cKath had a vision that went beyond her mahi in Healthy Families, it was a vision to build prevention practice across different spaces, places and kaupapa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribute concluded, \u201cWe miss Kath deeply, and we honour her by continuing the mahi \u2014 striving for the health and wellbeing of our communities, and our mokopuna.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand rugby player Kathleen \u201cKath\u201d Wharton\u2019s cause of death has reportedly been revealed nine months after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,29576,1581,53168,44,760,85],"class_list":["post-95422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-celebrity-news","tag-deaths","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}