Mindy McCready's ex says her suicide wasn't "a major shock"

Mindy McCready's ex-boyfriend said yesterday that her suicide was a long time coming because of her long struggles with depression.

Billy McKnight, the country singer's ex and father of one of her two children, told NBC's "Today" it "didn't come as a major shock."

"She's been battling demons for so long. I was around her when she attempted suicide twice . . . I knew it was in her," he said on the show. "I feel for her mother and her family and especially my son. But I can't say that it shocked me. No."

Pitcher Roger Clemens, a friend of McCready's, said the death was "sad news."

The singer's body was found Sunday on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Ark. She was pronounced dead "from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Cleburne County sheriff's office said in a statement.