Annabelle Neilson, 'Ladies of London' star and muse of Alexander McQueen, has died at age 49
Ladies of London reality star Annabelle Neilson is dead at age 49 of unknown causes.
According to Us Weekly, the London Metropolitan Police arrived at the former model’s home on Thursday, where a woman had been “found deceased at the location.” The death is not viewed as suspicious.
Ladies of London, which follows the lives of British socialites, is currently in its third season; Neilson left the Bravo show in 2015, after appearing in Seasons 1 and 2.
“Good buy to Ladies of London these are the ladies I love and are my real friends!!” she wrote on Instagram that year, posting a shot of herself with model Kate Moss. “I’m blessed and grateful to say fair well!! I wouldn’t say it’s been a ride, possibly a disappointment but we all make mistakes … See you on the other side.”
A post shared by Annabelle Neilson (@annabelleneilson1) on Nov 6, 2015 at 3:21pm PST
“Kate is my best mate and I love her like a sister. Yes, she’s an icon but to me, she’s just Kate,” Neilson told the Daily Mail in 2015. “We fight over stupid things, then we kiss and make up. We share clothes, we share everything and her fame has never been an issue.”
Neilson added, “She always looks out for me and I look out for her. We’ve got each other’s backs. I’m very proud of her and she’s very proud of me.”
According to People, Neilson was also close to model Naomi Campbell and played muse to the late Alexander McQueen, who died by suicide in 2010. Five years after his death, Neilson told the Daily Mail, “He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soulmate. Most of the time people called me Mrs. McQueen. Quite often we were sharing a bed.”
She met the designer, whom she called by his first name, Lee, when she was 22, thanks to her friend Isabella Blow, the muse of Philip Treacy. “Issie brought me to Lee as a model,” said Neilson. “She presented me to him as his new girl. Lee loved me immediately and it felt like we knew each other straight away. We were so alike. He was also dyslexic; he mirrored me in so many ways.”
In 1994, Neilson eloped with British financier Nat Rothschild in Las Vegas, after a four-year courtship. “He first asked me to marry him half an hour after we met and then every day afterward,” she told the Daily Mail. “Finally, we decided to do it.”
However, the marriage only lasted three years — thanks no doubt in part to the fact that Rothschild’s parents were “appalled” by their son’s “vulgar” wife, the Daily Mail said.
Neilson also struggled with heroin addiction, after a man attacked her in Perth, Australia at the age of 16. “The attack lasted for two hours. I was tied to a tree and continually beaten. I looked like the elephant girl by the end of it,” she told the Daily Mail. “I managed to escape with my life but I needed reconstructive surgery because my face was so disfigured.”
“After that, I fell into a serious depression and became a heroin addict because it provided an escape bubble and was the only way I could cope,” she explained. “In a way, heroin saved me, because otherwise, I would have killed myself.”
Neilson attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings and took to writing children’s books, including a series called “The Me Me Mes.”
In one of her last Instagram posts, Neilson lounged by a pool, writing, “In Spain catching some rays.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Asia Argento, Anthony Bourdain’s girlfriend, responds to his death
Kate Spade’s suicide is proof that money and fame can’t deter depression
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