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Margaret Mags Corbett, Jason Corbett’s first wife, passed away in November 2006 after suffering a serious asthma attack. The couple had been married for three years and were raising two children, Jack and Sarah, when Mags Corbett, a lifelong asthmatic, experienced a sudden respiratory episode.
Back in 2006, Mags Corbett woke up struggling to breathe. Jason tried to help by giving her a dose from her nebulizer. When it didn’t work, he called for an ambulance and jumped in the car with her to meet the medics on the way.
She didn’t make it. Mags was pronounced dead inside the ambulance before they could reach the hospital. Her passing was linked to complications from a serious asthma episode.
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Years later, in 2023, that night came under the spotlight again. During a sentencing hearing for Molly and Thomas Martens, Jason’s second wife and her father, the defense floated a different theory. They suggested that Mags might not have died due to asthma. They hinted at strangulation.
That suggestion didn’t sit well with Mags Corbett’s family. They pushed back, saying she had battled asthma her whole life. They defended Jason, stating he did all he could to try and save Mags.
The Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage walks viewers through this part of the story and unpacks the doubts, the claims, and what really happened.
Mags Corbett died from an asthma attack in 2006, leaving Jason to raise their children, Jack and Sarah, both under two at the time
Mags Corbett, born Margaret Fitzpatrick, died suddenly in November 2006 from an asthma-related medical emergency. She was 31 and had been married to Jason Corbett for three years. Mags had a long-standing history of asthma.
On the night of her death, she used her inhalers and a nebulizer, but her condition continued to deteriorate. Jason reportedly called an ambulance, woke Mags’ sister Catherine, and drove to meet emergency services en route. She passed away in the ambulance before reaching the hospital.
After her passing, Jason was left to raise the children alone. In 2008, he hired American au pair Molly Martens to assist with childcare. Within months of her arrival in Ireland, the two began a relationship and later moved to North Carolina, marrying in 2011.
Claims of foul play and the family’s firm rebuttal
During the 2023 sentencing hearing for Jason’s killers, Molly Martens and her father, Thomas Martens, the defense presented theories that Margaret may have died from strangulation, not asthma.
A retired forensic pathologist suggested her death was “possibly” due to asphyxiation, stating that findings in her 2006 autopsy, such as blushing around the nose and mouth, could be consistent with strangulation. However, he clarified that this was a possibility, not a probability.
The Fitzpatrick family responded in a detailed statement, read aloud in court and reported by the Irish Times on November 8, 2023. The statement read:
“Mags suffered with asthma all her life. She had a nebuliser in her home. Mags’s sister Catherine was living with Jason and Mags and was present on the night she died. Jason woke Catherine and he called an ambulance and ran out to take her to the hospital. He revived her in the car. He did everything he could to save this person he adored.”
They also disputed claims that Mags' father had accused Jason of wrongdoing. Before he died in 2016, he submitted an affidavit through a solicitor to deny those assertions.
Mags Corbett’s death is brought back into focus in the Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage
The Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage explores the circumstances of both Mags Corbett’s passing and the 2015 death of her husband, Jason Corbett. It includes interviews from both families, addressing how Molly and Tom Martens, convicted in Jason’s death, attempted to link him to Mags’ passing.
According to a Time report dated May 9, 2025, the documentary outlines how the defense’s narrative shifted to include the suggestion that Jason may have harmed Mags, though no credible evidence supported that claim.
Ultimately, Mags Corbett’s death remains officially attributed to asthma complications. Her family continues to defend Jason’s actions and maintain that he did everything he could to save her life.
Stay tuned for more updates.
