Jackie Collins planned to reveal 'secret affairs'

Author Jackie Collins. Photo / Getty Images

Jackie Collins was planning to reveal all about her "secret affairs" before she died.

The 77-year-old writer - who passed away over the weekend after secretly battling breast cancer for six years - was in the middle of writing her autobiography and promised it would contain juicy information, including a fling with a "very famous man".

Explaining why she was finally ready to speak out, Collins said: "As you get older you get wiser, I can do whatever I want - I don't give a sh*t about anything any more. As long as I have my family and my friends I'm happy.

"I'll talk about a couple of secret affairs I've had - one with a very famous man - which I think will shock people. We were destined to be together but when he was free I was attached and vice versa. I'm not going to write anything to wholly embarrass my children ... But there'll be some interesting things in there."

Collins also called her older sister, actress Joan, 82, her "best friend" and said they never competed against each other.

She told The Observer newspaper: "Joan and I are the best of friends. We're very close. People are always trying to pitch us against each other ... Because we're both successful. But we're very different. Joan is incredibly social and flamboyant and she loves to dress up. I'm much more low key and much less likely to go out for lunches and dinners. She loves being out and about, and I love being home, writing."

Meanwhile, the panel of ITV's Loose Women paid tribute to Collins after she made her final TV appearance on the show on September 10.

Janet Street Porter said: "I thought she was frail but she always puts on such an amazing show, she is a performer, it is hard to believe she has died. I was very sorry to hear it because she was one of the first really extraordinary people that I met in my career in journalism."

Gloria Hunniford also had no idea that Jackie was so ill.

She said: "I never saw anything that spelt illness or you couldn't believe that she would be that close to death and we thought that she was very thin in the face but she was saying LA people are on diets all the time.

"She was always bright, funny, nicely risqué when she wanted to be, she was just the perfect guest."

Jane Moore added: "She never really got the credit that she deserved as an author. It is very, very hard to write best-selling page turners like that and they're very underestimated... She has written five novels since her diagnosis!"

- Bang! Showbiz