The cast of Loose Women shared an emotional dedication to the daughter of Lisa Maxwell on Friday, following her death at the age of 27. Beau Jessup was studying at Columbia Journalism School and had been set to graduate next May. Her death was confirmed via a social media post from the Ivy League school on Wednesday. No cause of death has been confirmed at this stage.
Co-stars fight back tears in tribute
Her mother's former Loose Women co-stars fought back tears as they paid tribute on Friday's episode of the show. 'There's nothing to say, the feeling of sadness is overwhelming,' said Kaye Adams as she joined Myleene Klass, Judi Love and Jane Moore in paying their respects.
Opening the segment, Adams said: 'Now you may have already seen the devastating news about our colleague, former Loose Woman Lisa Maxwell, today. Lisa's daughter Beau has died suddenly at the age of 27. Beau was Lisa's only child and she had been studying in New York.'
Adams continued: 'We are sending all our love to Lisa, her husband Paul, and their family and friends.'
Beau's life and career ambitions
Born in October 1999, Beau was the daughter of Lisa Maxwell and Paul Jessup. Maxwell, who appeared on Loose Women between 2009 and 2014, was also known for playing Samantha Nixon on The Bill.
In response to a picture of her daughter's class posted on Columbia University's X page, Maxwell had written: 'Congratulations guys! Especially my daughter Beau Jessup over in NYC making us all super proud.'
The school also shared a link to an interview it had conducted with Jessup as part of an ongoing project. '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,' said Jessup. '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.'
At the age of just 16, Jessup launched SpecialName, a website made to give Chinese babies English names – an idea she developed after visiting China, where friends asked her to give an English name to a newborn baby. 'I was less interested in starting businesses than in finding ways to connect with people,' she told Columbia News of the project.
Of her plans for the future, Jessup told the university: 'I want to work as a journalist and writer, reporting on people, culture, and social questions with the rigour I'm learning at Columbia. I'm particularly drawn to journalism for its power and immediacy, while continuing to write for theatre when a subject benefits from being explored through a different form.'
