Jackie Collins, bestselling novelist and younger sister of actress Joan Collins, died Saturday in Los Angeles at the age of 77.
"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
told People magazine.
"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."
Collins was diagnosed with stage four cancer nearly seven years ago.
"Looking back, I'm not sorry about anything I did," she said during a Sept. 14 interview at her Beverly Hills home.
"I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say. I've written five books since the diagnosis, I've lived my life, I've travelled all over the world, I have not turned down book tours and no one has ever known until now when I feel as though I should come out with it. Now I want to save other people's lives."
Over the years, Collins underwent a lumpectomy, radiation, and various drug courses to treat the cancer.
Collins published her first book, "The World Is Full of Married Men," in 1968, and went on to sell more than 500 million copies of her roughly 30 across the world. She released her most recent novel, "The Santangelos," in June.
In a 2007 interview, Collins said she "never pretended to be a literary writer," and figured out early on that salacious, scandalous Hollywood stories had a huge audience in the mass market.
In addition to what she called a "fabulous affair" with Marlon Brando,
The New York Times reported that her first marriage to Wallace Austin "ended in divorce."
"Her second husband, Oscar Lerman, died of prostate cancer in 1992 after the couple had been married for 27 years. Four years later, her fiancé, Frank Calcagnini, died of cancer," the newspaper wrote.
Joan Collins, most famous for her role on the TV show "Dynasty," said that she was "devastated" by her sister's death.
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