Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald announced on Tuesday that his husband, Brazilian lawmaker David Miranda, has died at age 37 after battling a severe infection for most of the past year.
“It is with the most profound sadness that I announce the passing away of my husband,” Greenwald tweeted to his two million Twitter followers on Tuesday.
“He would have turned 38 tomorrow.”
Miranda, a native of Rio de Janeiro, was elected to Brazil’s federal congress in 2019. He is survived by Greenwald and their two adopted young sons.
Greenwald added: “His death, early this morning, came after a 9-month battle in ICU.”
Greenwald said that his husband was hospitalized due to a “life-threatening illness… from a suddenly inflamed and infected abdominal region that quickly spread via his blood to multiple organs.”
“He died in full peace, surrounded by our children and family and friends.”
Greenwald, an American expat who has taken up residence in Brazil, and Miranda met on Ipanema Beach in Rio 2005. They moved in together five days after their first encounter.
Greenwald eulogized his late husband as someone whose “life was extraordinary in all ways.”
“His mother died when he was 5, leaving him an orphan in Jacarezinho,” according to Greenwald.
“But a beautiful and compassionate neighbor, Dona Eliane, took him in despite 4 children of her own and deep poverty, became his mom, gave him a chance for a life.”
“That gave David the chance to live his full potential in a society that often suffocates it,” Greenwald tweeted.
“Because of how David grew up, there were always many assumptions made by those who didn’t know him,” Greenwald wrote.
“Anyone who did will tell you there was nobody with a stronger will or life force.”
“He was the most dedicated and loving parent. He taught me how to be a father. And our truly exceptional boys — with their own difficult start to live — is his greatest legacy,” Greenwald wrote.
He added: “David was singular: the strongest, most passionate, most compassionate man I’ve known.”
“Nobody had a bad word for him,” Greenwald wrote. “I can’t describe the loss and pain.”
“I’ll do my best to honor his legacy: our children and our NGOs. And I know so many will celebrate him and his impact.”
Greenwald is the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who gained fame for his reporting on the Edward Snowden case.
In recent years, Greenwald has emerged as a strident critic of the Biden administration, the Democratic Party, and mainstream liberal news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and others.
