Daughter of beloved British actress dies suddenly at 27 while studying at Columbia University

Beau Jessup, the daughter of British actress and former Loose Women panelist Lisa Maxwell, has died at age 27. Columbia Journalism School announced the death in a statement posted on its website on Monday, November 9, saying it mourned the loss of Jessup, a student in its M.S. program expected to graduate in May 2027. The school did not disclose a cause of death. "We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, classmates, and all who knew and loved her," the statement read. "The J-School is working with Beau's family to offer support and assistance during this difficult time."

Columbia also released an unpublished interview with Jessup from October, conducted as part of its Notebook series. In it, Jessup explained her path to journalism: "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 said she saw how journalism could illuminate experiences but also how they could be "distorted, simplified, or transformed into a public narrative over which the subject had very little control." She added, "I was curious, from quite a young age, about who gets to tell people's stories."

Jessup held a Master's in Writing for Performance from the University of Cambridge and wrote her first play, The Sandbag, which she described as interrogating "how family, memory, the body, and inherited narratives shape the stories we tell about ourselves." She told Columbia she hoped to work as a journalist reporting on people and culture and to "ask social questions with the rigor I'm learning at Columbia," while continuing to write for theater.

Born in October 1999, Jessup was the daughter of Maxwell, 62, and Paul Jessup. Maxwell spoke to People in 2008 about motherhood, saying, "As she's growing up, she's become more of a little mate to me. We have so much fun together, and I'm constantly amazed by all the new things she's learning to do." Maxwell and Paul Jessup married in July 2014. Neither has commented publicly on the death. Page Six noted Jessup previously made headlines in 2016 for launching SpecialName, a website helping Chinese parents choose English names for their children, which earned her more than $60,000.