Publicist: Novelist Jackie Collins dies of breast cancer

Hollywood Wives novelist Jackie Collins dies of breast cancer at age 77.

Collins has written some 32 books which have, combined, sold more than 500 million copies.

The sister to legendary actress Joan Collins gave what would be her final interview to the magazine earlier this week, where she said she had no regrets about her life.

Joan’s sister Jackie Collins said the news of Joan’s death left her “completely devastated”.

Collins, who is best-known for her raunchy bestsellers, had been on a promotional trail in recent weeks for her latest novel, The Santangelos.

In their statement, Collins’ family described a “wonderfully full life” and four decades spent entertaining readers.

People first reported Collins’ death.

Her debut novel, The World is Full of Married Men, was reportedly deemed “filthy and disgusting” by the author Barbara Cartland and was banned in Australia and several other countries.

Collins was a best-selling author who wrote about life in Hollywood and the “glamorous live (and loves) of the rich, famous, and infamous” according to her website. “I felt that she should have had more say in what was going on in the home”.

Presenter Eamonn Holmes said: “Over years of interviewing, appearing with her, even travelling together – she was just lovely”.

Diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer six-and-a-half years ago, Collins, 77, chose to keep her illness nearly entirely to herself, confiding primarily in her three daughters, Tracy, 54, Tiffany, 48, and Rory, 46.

“When I was a kid growing up, I used to read my father’s Playboy and I’d see these guys and they had fantastic apartments and cars”, she said.

Private memorial services will be held for Collins in the U.S. , where she lived, and the United Kingdom , where she was born.