The author Jackie Collins has died at the age of 77 from breast cancer in Los Angeles.
The family of Jackie Collins have confirmed that best selling author Jackie Collins has died from breast cancer at the age of 77.
A statement released by the family said,
“It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of our beautiful, dynamic and one-of-a-kind mother,”
“She was a true inspiration, a trailblazer for women in fiction and a creative force. She will live on through her characters but we already miss her beyond words,”
In her lifetime Collins is credited with selling over 500 million books. At the time of her death Collins had penned 32 novels and had largely defined the “bonkbuster” genre.
Her sister, Joan Collins told People Magazine in the US that she was devastated by the news.
“She was my best friend. I admire how she handled this. She was a wonderful, brave and a beautiful person and I love her,”
Jackie Collins has long been a strong advocate for the LGBT community. In an interview with Out magazine she revealed that as a teenager she had crush on a boy called Peter, who later committed suicide. She said,
“When I was 15 and thrown out of school, I went to a drama school, a preparatory academy in England, and there was this lovely guy there called Peter,” she says. “He was my first gay crush, really, and we got along like a house on fire — and one day he committed suicide. And that made me think really deeply about the problems that some poor guys go through when they want to come out.
“I’ll never forget Peter,” she says. “He was so good-looking; he had curly hair, and he was tall and lovely. He just couldn’t come out, and then he killed himself. He must have been about 17, maybe.
Right from the beginning of her writing career Collins had introduced gay characters. She said,
“I’ve written 29 books, and I’ve always had gay characters, right from the very beginning
“Sometimes they might be a little clichéd, and sometimes not.”
She leaves behind three children.
