Katy French
| Katy French | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
31 October 1983 Basel, Switzerland |
| Died | 6 December 2007 (aged 24) Navan, County Meath, Ireland |
| Cause of death | Brain damage from drug use |
Katy Ellen French (31 October 1983 – 6 December 2007) was an Irish socialite, model, writer, television personality and charity worker. According to the BBC, "in the space of less than two years, she had become one of Ireland's best-known models and socialites." She collapsed at a friend's house on 2 December 2007 and died on 6 December. Her cause of death was given as hypoxic ischemic brain injury caused by cocaine and ephedrine.
French was born in Basel, Switzerland, to parents Janet (from Britain) and John (from Australia) French. She moved with her family to Ireland aged two, briefly living in the Sandyford area before settling in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, and later to Stillorgan, County Dublin. French attended Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin, from the age seven. While still in school she worked part-time as a hostess at the Dublin branch of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain.
Katy French studied psychology and marketing before working for the Assets Modelling Agency and later writing articles for several Dublin magazines and newspapers. She represented Sony Ericsson and Suzuki among many other brands, becoming more famous in 2007 as a result of her fiancé, restaurateur Marcus Sweeney, ending their relationship in a very public fashion after French was photographed for a lingerie shoot for the Sunday Independent in his restaurant in January of that year. As a result of this publicity, her image appeared more regularly in daily Irish tabloid newspapers and she made numerous television appearances on shows such as RTÉ's The Podge and Rodge Show in April 2007 and Tubridy Tonight a week before her death. French was known for deliberately courting controversy to promote her career. On Tubridy Tonight she spoke of her appearance on Celebrities Go Wild as well as her relationship break up with Sweeney. Mention was also made of her birthday party which she was to celebrate the following week, having missed her birthday due to Celebrities Go Wild. Host Ryan Tubridy was invited to the event. Footage was shown of the charity single "Down in the Bog" which was to be released as a Christmas single. She worked for several Irish charities including Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin and GOAL in Calcutta, India. She wrote a column for Social & Personal magazine.
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