Joan Collins has penned an essay about her late sister, author Jackie Collins, opening up in an emotional tribute posted to Joan Collins’s website on Sunday.

“Jackie really enjoyed her life so much and lived it to the hilt, and when we were together, even if we hadn’t seen each other for a few months, we were thick as thieves,” she wrote in the tribute, also saying that she “never had a better girlfriend than Jackie”.

Jackie died earlier this month after a battle with cancer. She was 77. She was diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer more than six years ago, but kept the diagnosis to herself and her three daughters.

In the tribute, Joan remembers getting the call from her sister and hearing about her cancer, which Jackie also kept from her.

She wasn’t just a star – to me she was an entire galaxy

“My voice was so choked with tears I could hardly speak. She explained that since we spent so much time in Europe, while she was in LA, she knew I would be worried but there would be nothing I could do,” Joan wrote. “That was typical of my sister. She always put other people, particularly family, ahead of herself.”

Joan also recalled some of her happier memories with Jackie, including some of their Hollywood adventures, and remembered Jackie’s intense passion for pop culture and writing.

“I don’t think I will ever recover from the sadness of losing my beautiful baby sister,” Joan wrote. “Someone once said, ‘The reality is that you don’t ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one, you learn to live with it.’”

Joan added, “She wasn’t just a star – to me she was an entire galaxy.”