Lucy Birley – the ex-wife of Bryan Ferry – has died on holiday in Ireland at the age of 58, her heartbroken husband revealed today.
Former model and socialite Mrs Birley had four sons during her 21-year relationship with the Roxy Music singer before they divorced in 2003.
Mr Ferry said Lucy was the inspiration for much of his later music and she appeared on the cover of his band’s eighth and final album Avalon.
He said today: ‘I’m much saddened and shocked by this tragic news of Lucy’s death. The family request that our privacy be respected during this difficult time’.
After their divorce she then married again in 2006 after finding love with Robin Birley, who announced her death today.
A statement on behalf of the model and socialite’s husband and her children said: ‘On Monday Lucy Birley (nee Helmore) passed away whilst on holiday in Ireland, surrounded by her beloved dogs, Daisy, Peg and Daphne.
‘Her husband Robin, and her sons – Otis, Isaac, Tara and Merlin – are understandably devastated and request that their privacy be respected during this difficult time.’
Mrs Birley had a high profile battle with addiction to alcohol and drugs and split with Bryan after she became teetotal.
Her death came a week after friend Annabelle Nielson collapsed and died aged 49 and both were part of a London set that included fashion icon Isabella Blow, who killed herself in 2007, and supermodel Kate Moss.
Lucy Birley – the former wife of singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry (pictured together in Hyde Park in 1995) – has died on holiday in Ireland at the age of 58 (right with her soon-to-be husband in 1981)
Lucy Birley married again in 2006 after falling in love with Robin Birley, pictured together , the stepson of the late Sir James Goldsmith
Mrs Birley was last photographed at the Cheltenham Gold Cup last year (pictured) and died on Monday
Her death came a week after friend Annabelle Nielson collapsed and died aged 49 and both were part of a London set that included fashion icon Isabella Blow, who killed herself in 2007, and supermodel Kate Moss (pictured at London Fashion Week in 1993)
Lucy was close to her four boys, pictured here with sons Otis and Merlin at Cheltenham in 2011
Bryan Ferry said he was shocked and saddened
Daughter of the late Lloyd’s underwriter Patrick Helmore, Lucy said she parted with her rockstar husband after they ‘drifted apart’.
Bryan and Lucy Ferry in St Peter’s Square, Rome, in June 1982 shortly after they married
She was teetotal since 1993 after she was detoxed during a nine week stint at Farm Place clinic, near Ockley in Surrey.
The following January Bryan spent the New Year on his own in Barbados, working on an album.
After their 2003 divorce, where she was reportedly handed £10million of Bryan’s fortune, she was romanced by Robin Birley, the stepson of the late Sir James Goldsmith and they married in 2006.
But there was a notable absentee on their wedding day – the groom’s father Mark.
Despite the couple’s efforts to heal the rift in the bridegroom’s family, Mark, the man who created Annabel’s nightclub – named after his ex-wife – failed to show up to support his son.
Robin is the son of the late Sir Mark and Lady Annabel Goldsmith, and the half-brother of Zac, Ben and Jemima Goldsmith.
After their divorce Bryan, formerly with Jerry Hall before she found Mick Jagger, fell in love with Kate Turner, a dancer 35 years his junior, but they would split six years later in 2008.
He then met PR woman Amanda Sheppard and in early January 2012 they married in a private ceremony on the Turks and Caicos Islands.
But 19 months later they separated
The couple, pictured in 1997, split but remained amicable describing it as a ‘working relationship’ and met with their children
Lucy clings to her son Otis at the 2007 funeral of friend Isabella Blow, the magazine editor and muse of hat designer Philip Treacy
Lucy was a model and photographer who said she ‘drifted’ from Bryan Ferry before their divorce
Their eldest son Otis spent some time in jail in 2008 after being charged with assaulting a hunt protester.
His mother said at the time: ‘I am worried sick about him being in prison without any clean shirts or socks. For someone who loves the outdoors so much, it’s very difficult to be in a cell without any windows or fresh air.’
Mr Ferry said Lucy was the inspiration for much of his later music and she appeared on the cover of his band’s eighth and final album Avalon, albeit under a helmet
Four years earlier Otis was among pro-hunt campaigners who stormed the Commons as MPs debated the hunting ban, which he described as ‘futile’.
In 2011, Birley told The Guardian that she retreated from public life following the breakdown of her 21-year marriage to Ferry and for other personal reasons, including her son’s arrest.
She said: ‘I didn’t want to be put in the spotlight.
‘My family’s attitude to the press and publicity was very much that it was frowned upon. You only appeared in papers if you were born, married or had died. That affected me when I got married to Bryan.
‘I didn’t want to reveal myself and, actually, probably there wasn’t much to reveal at that point.’
She was known as a model and society heiress in her younger days, and later dabbled in photography.