Jackie Collins, who chronicled a who’s who of Hollywood sexual encounters in dozens of her best-selling novels, died on September 19 of breast cancer at the age of 77.
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Her family have confirmed her death in a statement, explaining she died in Los Angeles.
Once she moved to America, Collins, who was awarded an OBE in 2013, promised readers unrivalled insiders’ knowledge of Hollywood, and said she wrote about “real people in disguise”.
The 82-year-old actress told People magazine: “She was my best friend”.
She was seen joking around with the Loose Women ladies about research for her erotic novels and the fact that she had tried out all of the sexual positions herself.
In a statement, she said: “That smart, talented, and gorgeous woman paved the road for so many of us so that we could experience a much smoother journey… with or without heels”.
Her older sister is the actress Joan Collins. But eventually, she succumbed to the disease on Saturday and her family said she lived “a wonderfully full life”.
Her family made the sad announcement on Facebook earlier today. “I found that in my teenage years married men would be chasing me everywhere and going, ‘Oh, yeah, well, my wife is different, but you know, she doesn’t really understand me.’…”
Collins’ forte was the world of wealth, celebrity and gangster glam, and the illicit affairs and dirty deals conducted therein.
Friends of Collins also took to Twitter to mourn her. TV personality Sharon Osbourne tweeted a picture of the pair together and wrote: “Shocked & devastated at the death of @JackiejCollins”. In total, her books have sold over 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages.
“I lost my mother to cancer, my husband of 25 years to cancer and then my fiance”.
Her famous sister, 82-year-old Joan Collins, learned of the diagnoses only the night before her Jackie’s death. Her latest book, The Santangelos, came out this summer; Collins gave numerous interviews about the book without mentioning her diagnosis or any treatments.
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Services will be held in both the US and United Kingdom The Collins family asked that donations be sent to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Organization or the Penny Brohn Cancer Care in lieu of flowers.
