Astronaut and former MP Marc Garneau has laid bare a personal tragedy he endured decades ago in a new book about his life.

A Most Extraordinary Ride outlines Garneau’s fascinating experiences in space, and his time as the federal government’s former Foreign Affairs minister, but it’s the personal challenges he navigated after his first wife died by suicide that he felt was important to include in the book.

“I wanted to be frank and honest about it. I lost my first wife to suicide. She was diagnosed as bipolar, and that was probably the most difficult time in my life from a personal perspective. It was at a time…back in 1987, when people didn’t talk much about mental illness. There wasn’t a great deal of support out there. I’m very glad to see things are changing.”

The tragedy left him as a single parent to twin children.

“And thank God for my family, and my friends and my two 11-year-old…twins.”

The book is available in most major book stores and online through Amazon.