Bryan Ferry's ex-wife Lucy Birley dead in apparent suicide

(ZUMA Press/Reuters)

The socialite ex-wife of British rocker Bryan Ferry shot herself to death following a long battle with depression, according to a report.

The body of Lucy Birley was found Monday in County Clare, Ireland, where she was vacationing. She was 58.

Police are investigating her death as a “personal tragedy and suicide,” saying Birley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

She was alone when she died and surrounded by her three dogs, Daisy, Peg and Daphne. A gun was found close to her body.

Birley, a former model-turned-photographer, and Ferry, the frontman of Roxy Music, were married for 21 years before divorcing in 2003. They had four sons.
He issued a terse statement about her death on Twitter.

“I’m much saddened and shocked by this tragic news of Lucy’s death,” he wrote. “The family request that our privacy be respected during this difficult time.”

Birley’s brother Ed Helmore told the Mail that she had struggled with mental-health issues for some time.

“Lucy fought a long battle with depression, a battle that she lost on Monday,” said Helmore, a British journalist who is based in New York.

Ferry once said in an interview that Birley was his musical muse. She appeared on the cover of Roxy Music’s final album “Avalon.”

In 2011, Birley revealed that she struggled with being thrust into the limelight during her marriage to the “More Than This” crooner.

“You only appeared in papers if you were born, married or had died. That affected me when I got married to Bryan,” she told the Guardian. “I didn’t want to reveal myself and, actually, probably there wasn’t much to reveal at that point.”

Birley leaves behind her second husband Robin Birley, who owns 5 Hertford Street nightclub in London. They married in 2006.

“Her husband Robin, and her sons — Otis, Isaac, Tara and Merlin — are understandably devastated and request that their privacy be respected during this difficult time,” the family said in a statement.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post.