The cast of Loose Women is sending support to former panelist Lisa Maxwell following the “devastating” news of her 27-year-old daughter Beau Jessup‘s death.
“Lisa’s daughter, Beau, has died suddenly at the age of 27,” Loose Women moderator Kaye Adams told viewers during the Friday, November 13, episode. “Beau was Lisa’s only child and had been studying in New York.”
Adams, 63, and Friday’s Loose Women panelists Myleene Klass, Judi Love and Jane Moore fought back tears as they spoke about their colleague’s loss.
“There’s nothing to say,” Adams acknowledged. “The feeling of sadness is just overwhelming.”
She added, “We are sending all of our love to Lisa, her husband [Paul Jessup] and all of their family and friends.”
Beau’s death was announced on Monday, November 9, by the Columbia Journalism School, the institution where she was due to graduate in May 2027 with a master’s degree in Journalism. (She previously studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge.)
“We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, classmates and all who knew and loved her,” the school said in a statement. “The J-School is working with Beau’s family to offer support and assistance during this difficult time.”
A cause of death was not immediately made available.
Columbia received permission from Beau’s family and fellow students to release an interview Beau conducted with Columbia News mere weeks before her death. The graduate student reflected on moving to New York City after completing her undergraduate studies in the U.K.
“The most special thing has been learning from my professor journalists, whose careers I aspire to emulate, surrounded by people who are equally curious and ambitious about the world,” she said in the October interview. “Studying in New York City, at the center of global journalism, makes that experience even more exciting. I also love being part of the wider Columbia community.”
Beau spoke about her desire to be “a journalist and writer, reporting on people, culture and social questions” after graduating with a master’s degree in 2027.
While speaking to Columbia News, Beau opened up about how she dealt with her mother’s fame while growing up. (In addition to appearing on Loose Women from 2009 to 2014, Lisa also had acting roles in the long-running cop drama The Bill and primetime soap Hollyoaks.)
“As the daughter of a television actress, I grew up with an unusual awareness of the distance between people’s lives and the stories told about them,” she told the school paper. “I saw how journalism could illuminate someone’s experiences, but also how those experiences could be distorted, simplified, or transformed into a public narrative over which the subject had very little control. I was curious, from quite a young age, about who gets to tell people’s stories, and what happens when those stories enter the public domain.”
Neither Lisa or her husband Paul have commented on their daughter’s death. (The couple tied the knot in the Cotswolds in 2014.)
