Malta-born Page 3 legend Suzanne Mizzi, the blonde beauty and popular pin-up of the 1980s and 1990s, lost her battle against cancer, dying on Sunday, aged 43.
British newspaper The Sun reported that Ms Mizzi divided her time between family homes in Malta, London and Spain.
Her 34-24-34 figure set hearts racing and her face and body were insured for a staggering £11 million at the height of her fame, The Sun said.
Husband and childhood sweetheart Frank Camilleri, also a Maltese Briton and property deve-loper, was quoted as saying that “Suzanne was a beautiful person inside and out. She had an amazing life as a model, artist and interior designer”.
According to Page 3 photographer Beverley Goodway, whose pictures turned her into a star, she was “one of Page 3’s most successful and best-loved models.
“She was exquisitely pretty, with amazing eyes and the readers loved her... It always made me smile to see her put on make-up before a shoot. She would concentrate so hard she would frown in front of the mirror – but in front of the camera she just lit up. Frank was always with her and it was always obvious how much they were devoted to each other,” the photographer said of the couple that had been together for 30 years.
Ms Mizzi, who leaves behind a seven-year-old son, Geo, and daughter Sienna, six, died on Sunday afternoon at St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, east London, near her home. She had been battling ovarian cancer for more than a year.
She shot to fame in 1984 after posing on Page 3 at 17. Within weeks she was getting more than £1,000 a time for personal appearances. By the age of 21 she had a three-year, £400,000 contract to launch her own lingerie range.
In 1991 she was voted the girl most men would like to take shopping in Paris by Esquire magazine. Her bee-sting lips were familiar in commercials for brand giants such as Kellogg’s, Marlboro and Fiat.
Ms Mizzi went on to achieve success as a catwalk model for top designers, spending three years as the face of Vivienne Westwood.
Over the past 10 years she was a successful artist and interior designer known as Mizzy. Her abstract paintings sold for up to £10,000.