Stella Tennant is dead to me!

Wow, how unfortunate and unexpected. I wonder if it was covid related. Very sad.

She separated from her husband in August + just turned 50. I am guessing suicide.

Didn't she have about 5-6 kids?!

probably depressed and ODed on pills/booze etc

RIP

A handsome woman (and I mean that with respect). She had a regal presence that's sorely lacking among current models.

Sad.

Holy crap. That came out of nowhere (at least for most of us).

I’d guess suicide - possibly OD. The divorce from husband is a sign. Another reminder not to envy those who seem to have it all - the money often comes from a genetic line of mental illness.

She had four kids - they appeared to adore her judging from their social media. The husband probably found someone else. It definitely sounds like a suicide.

The Independent mentioned this, "At the time of her death, she and her husband lived in a small village in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders." Are you 100% sure she was separated?

Stella was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, and The Hon. Deborah Mitford, one of the well-known Mitford sisters, 50-year-old Tennant also featured in the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012, appearing as one of the models wearing British designs. She was discovered by Steven Meisel.

Stella officially retired from modeling in 1998, she made sporadic modeling appearances over the years.

2020, has been the WORST year ever! For so many reasons.

Doesn't necessarily have to be suicide. Sometimes people just drop dead.

But yikes, what a surprise.

Maybe in was COVID-19?????

Her oldest kid is 21. This is going to be rough.

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I checked her Instagram and it is still public but cleared of all photos. Maybe she was depressed.

Wow, how awful. She has everything. Quelle horuerre.

I find this shocking. She made an impact on me as a 90s kid. Such a unique look. I’m sorry for her family.

I can’t imagine making it to the big age of 50 and then ending it all for a man. Don’t any of YOU bitches ever do that. There’s always another dick just around the corner.

Stella with her late grandmother at Chatsworth.

She was my favorite model for years. Yes, that steely, regal bearing was her signature vibe. Adding to that, was her aversion to smiling. I found her mysterious and utterly fascinating to look at. In retrospect, it may be that her detachment was a symptom of severe depression.

Ugh. Really bummed

It's very rare for women with multiple children to commit suicide. I'm not sure people know that.

She was depressed....probably made worse by the pandemic.

"It's very rare for women with multiple children to commit suicide. I'm not sure people know that."

Tell that to the Hart children...

Stella Tennant was part of a very memorable Gap denim campaign in 1996.

Stella Tennant was part of a very memorable Gap denim campaign in 1996.

She was the most androgynous looking of the 90s models. I never found her to be particularly beautiful or project model charisma. I think her biggest selling point was that she came from an aristocratic background. She always looked too lanky even for a model, like she had mild Marfan Syndrome. I think her best photos were those of her wearing stately gowns or outdoor shots.

Looks like the less pretty sister of Josie Borain.

Was she evicted?

Yeah, she definitely had the androgynous thing going on which contributed to her mystique.

Wow I had visited Chatworth and didn’t connect the dots to Stella. RIP.

If she was living in Berwickshire she probably died of boredom.

She was a major coke head back in the 1990s. Often leads to heart attacks later in life.

Covid doesn't cause "sudden death". One develops severe symptoms over days, not hours.

Abusing cocaine in the 90's would not lead to a silent heart attack in 2020.

Recent divorce/separation, getting old, and history of drug/alcohol misuse. Suicide is high on the differential of causes of death.

Cocaine would have been the only way to stay this emaciated.

Ugh. Too bony in that photo. Not an attractive look.

[quote] She had four kids - they appeared to adore her judging from their social media.

I don't judge that much from social media.

Sad, I remember seeing her in all the magazines in the 90s

History of chronic cocaine use can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy which for some people are silent time bombs when it’s asymptomatic until cardiac arrest or MI.

Looking at her frame it appears that level of thinness wasn’t her natural build. She has big bones and her upper thigh actually quite muscular. It’s when you get to the rest of her that there were signs of unnatural thinness.

It sounds like she died of the same thing Ann Reinking died of. What ever that was.

Her face looks nice, like she was aging naturally and not going overboard with injections and plastic surgery.

Shows how a perfect life can turn on a dime. A dream country house, a hunky husband, and boom!

Tremendous! She'll never need a facelift.

She was unusual and truly striking. A one-of-kind model, quirky in that way that is unique to the British aristocracy. She was so off the radar, I haven’t thought of her in years, but her passing makes me nostalgic for the 90s. I suppose she had some demons, the marriage separation, COVID quarantine...all looks suspiciously like an accidental overdose. If she deliberately took her own life (a la Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain) I suspect it would have been announced. There are probably toxicology reports to run. So sad for her children right before Christmas.

Sad, I liked her

Always loved this pic with Stella and her chicken by Francois Nars.

STELLA!!!!!!!

Cane face?

Is this dead woman related to notorious Stephen Tennant?

Yes, r48. He was her great uncle.

^ I'd rather see Stephen on the catwalk

He was her great-uncle, R48.

r48, yes!

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Stephen's mother was a cousin of Lord Alfred Douglas.

Ugh... the nepotishm of it all

I adore R18.

Stella in a tiara.

Covid can cause sudden death - blood clots can form rapidly and overwhelm the heart/lungs. One of the first cases I heard about was a 39 year old woman dropping dead in her home in New Orleans, not long after Mardi Gras. Her on/off again boyfriend said she had texted him to say she loved him and he didn't reply and felt guilty about it. Story stuck with me for some reason.

Anyhow, yeah, it can happen - especially then when people didn't understand the disease very well. Everybody gets colds and flu... but she had even been up and about doing stuff that day

Only in the UK would she be considered beautiful.

Here's the link of the woman who dropped dead of covid in her kitchen.

She's prettier than Tennant - not a high bar though (sorry I know...RIP and all that)

The first known casualty in the U.S. in February was a middle aged woman in Santa Clara county who died suddenly, as well. She called in sick with flu like symptoms and worked from home answering e-mails in the morning. She was found dead that afternoon. An autopsy revealed COD was ruptured heart.

It can happen. Especially if she was vulnerable due to prior cocaine abuse.

Here's the link for r61, hopefully. I've had trouble linking lately.

Never head of her.

I loved her wedding ensemble. Did she have a title?

Nope

There is a saying in medical education: when you hear hoofbeats, don't go looking for zebras.

Sudden cardiac death from Covid - rare, and a zebra.

Cocaine use in the 1990's, subsequently 4 pregnancies with (I assume) great prenatal care, and sudden cardiac death from undiagnosed cardiomyopathy, zebra.

A known anorexic, with a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, aging person facing loss of industriousness, coping with one of life's major stressors: divorce (with possible financial repercussions) - suicide, a horse.

r66. However you forgot to factor in the 4 children.

I am with R66. Medical version of Occam's Razor.

Her children are now aged 15-22, R67. While it's true that suicide risk in women decreases with each child, that protective factor is strongest when the child is under 2 years old. Her children, having passed the age of dependency, may not have been enough to tether her.

R66, she was still more wealthy, lucky and privileged than 80% of British society. If everybody who faces divorce would kill themselves we would lose 35% of all people on this planet.

R66, she was still more wealthy, lucky and privileged than 80% of British society. If everybody who faces divorce would kill themselves we would lose 35% of all people on this planet.

Accidental overdose?

It was ALS. She was diagnosed about a year ago.

Says who, R73?

Wow, that is so random R73 that I will not be surprised if true..

not true

R73 got lost on the way to the Rebecca Luker thread.

You would have to be pretty desperate to kill yourself a few days before Christmas when you have children who will be devastated but some people become that desperate. I'm sure when the dust settles the full story will come out, I have to say it sounds like suicide, we may never know the real reason unless she left a note like Kate Spade and her note only hinted at the reason.

Fuckin' tragic.

Can I have her stuff?

This is very sad. She had a very distinctive look as a model. She still worked, I saw her photograph not too long ago. She was related to Colin Tennant of Mustique and Princess Margaret fame as seen in last season’s The Crown.

Stella in another tiara.

In a lovely headpiece

Her maternal grandmother, Deborah Mitford the Duchess of Devonshire, was quite lovely.

It could be that Covid intensified everything or something in her mind too, r78. I haven't read this entire thread but I believe the media reporting that she was concerned about never working again as a model. Don't know if there is any truth to that. But it seems that I've been reading about a fair amount of relationships breaking up (public people) since this pandemic starting to rage. Emotions are at a peak it seems for all of us but for some, maybe a bit more? Who knows. But on the other hand again, one would think that a pandemic would bring out "nurturing" feelings towards loved ones. Who knows.

Wow, R83. The resemblance is striking

Very sad to hear this. From the outside she looked like she had the perfect life. Guess we never know what someone is really going through behind closed doors. Tragic for her children over Christmas.

As we've heard and seen many times before, you can have everything and still be depressed. Take care of yourself!

Too bad. She actually looked great as she aged. Any update on cause of death?

This has been mentioned upthread but to see it all in one paragraph, wow.

[quote]Stella was also the bluest of blue-bloods. Her mother, botanical artist Lady Emma Cavendish, was the daughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife Deborah “Debo” Devonshire, the youngest of the fabled Mitford sisters who was famously droll and beautiful and whose entrepreneurial flair transformed Chatsworth, the Devonshires’s storied family estate, into one of Britain’s great tourist destinations. Stella’s father, Tobias William Tennant, meanwhile, was the son of the 2nd Baron Glenconner, and younger brother of Colin Tennant, the 3rd Baron Glenconner, who bought the Caribbean island of Mustique with a youthful inheritance and transformed it into the playground of rock and real royalty. As an insecure teenager, Stella recalled a visit to her eccentric aesthete uncle the Honorable Stephen Tennant who had been a noted Bright Young Thing and a celebrated beauty himself in the 1920s.

Thank goodness we have our own American aristocrats among today's fashion models! The Hadids and the Jenners, for example.

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Do they know the cause of death yet?

I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere R92, but I am still interested also.

She killed herself after having been "unwell for some time"

I am R66 and in my post I predicted successfully her cause of death.

R95 Do mine next!

r95 Do djt's also!

Selfish act with all those children

Ex husband must feel like a douche bag and is likely loathed by the children now