Jackie Collins, best-selling author, dies age 77
Best-selling novelist Jackie Collins has died at the age of 77.
The author lost a six-and-a-half year battle with breast cancer on Saturday.
“It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of our beautiful, dynamic and one of a kind mother, Jackie Collins, who died of breast cancer today,” the Collins family said in a statement.
“She lived a wonderfully full life and was adored by her family, friends and the millions of readers who she has been entertaining for over 4 decades.
“She was a true inspiration, a trail blazer for women in fiction and a creative force.
“She will live on through her characters but we already miss her beyond words.”
Ms Collins was also a strong LGBT advocate – saying that many of her novels were inspired by the gay men in her life.
“It may sound cliché, but some of my best friends are gay and I always have a better time with them than I do straight people,” she told The Advocate in 2014.
“That’s why I’ve written gay characters into so many of my books.
“Some have bigger parts than others, but I like to write about all colours, all identities, all sexualities – gay, straight, whatever.
“I write characters that I see in my own life.”
Hollywood actress Joan Collins led the tributes to her sister in a statement saying she was “completely devastated” by the loss.
“She was my best friend,” Joan said.
“I admire how she handled this. She was a wonderful, brave and a beautiful person and I love her.”
Collins was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2009 but chose to keep her illness out of the public eye, and told People in an interview on September 14 that she had no regrets.
“Looking back, I’m not sorry about anything I did,” she said. “I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say.
