Socialite and Former Reality TV Star Annabelle Neilson Dies at 49

Annabelle Neilson, socialite, model and reality TV star best known for starring in Bravo’s now-canceled realty show Ladies of London, died on Thursday, Entertainment Tonight reports. She was 49.

The London Metropolitan Police confirmed to the news outlet that they were called by the London Ambulance Service to a residential address in Oakley Gardens after Neilson had been found deceased there. The death is reportedly not being treated as suspicious, ET reports.

Neilson appeared on the first two seasons of Ladies of London and left the series in November 2015.

“These are the ladies I love and are my real friends!!” she wrote on Instagram at the time of her departure from the show. “I’m blessed and grateful to say [farewell]!! I wouldn’t say it’s been a ride, possibly a disappointment but we all make mistakes … See you on the other side.”

The reality star was also a socialite who worked as a model and was close friends with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, as well as the late designer Alexander McQueen. She also authored a series of children’s books called The Me Me Me’s.

Neilson dropped out of school when she was 16 after being severely bullied, reports The New York Times. During a gap year visit to Perth, Australia, she was viciously assaulted and left with injuries that required reconstructive surgery. She soon struggled with drug addiction, she told the Daily Mail.

“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 said in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2015. “In a way, heroin saved me, because otherwise I would have killed myself.”

Her modeling career began after she got sober, and at age 22 met McQueen, becoming one of his muses and a friend. Her revealing outfits, like a totally sheer McQueen dress she wore in 2000, earned her minor notoriety at the time.

“He liked my wackiness — and the fact that when I went out, I made his outfits live,” Neilson told W Magazine in 2012.

Neilson was also reportedly the last person to see McQueen alive before he took his life in 2010 at the age of 40, the day before his mother’s funeral.

“He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soul mate,” she told the Daily Mail. “Most of the time people called me Mrs. McQueen. Quite often we were sharing a bed.”

“The truth is, I was happier with Lee than with anyone else,” she added. “He asked me to marry him towards the end and I said no. I wish now that I had said yes.”

Neilson made headlines in 1994 after eloping with Nathaniel Rothschild, son of the banker Jacob Rothschild. The couple divorced after three tumultuous years of marriage, with Neilson reportedly receiving a substantial settlement after signing a confidentiality agreement and reverting to her maiden name.

Neilson is survived by her parents, Max and Elizabeth Neilson, and her sister, Millie.