Gemma Collins's mum, Joan, has died at the age of 70, and the news came in a post on Instagram from the former The Only Way is Essex star. Collins said her heart was shattered into a million pieces and that she was with her mother on the day she died.
Joan at 70
Collins wrote that her mother “passed away peacefully surrounded by LOVE,” naming the exact moment that shifted this from private loss to public announcement. She also described Joan as her beautiful mum and said she hoped she was finally free from pain.
That message gives the clearest available account of what happened: Joan died peacefully, Collins was there, and the family was together on the day. For readers looking for the practical bottom line, the only confirmed update is the announcement itself, delivered directly by Collins rather than through any other route.
Gemma Collins and Joan
The post leans on memory as much as grief. Collins said Joan had given her life, strength, and memories, then closed by calling her loved forever, missed every single day, and never, ever forgotten. For a public figure whose personal life often becomes part of the news cycle, that is a rare moment of direct, unfiltered family reporting.
There is a harder detail inside the tribute as well: Collins said Joan was surrounded by love, but also that she hoped her mother was now free from pain after becoming unable to walk again and feel light. That combination turns the post into more than a farewell; it tells readers the loss followed a period of physical decline, even if no cause of death was given.
The next thing readers have is Collins’s own words, and those words point to grief rather than a new public development. What remains at the center is simple and final: Joan died at 70, her daughter was beside her, and Collins chose Instagram to say goodbye in a way that leaves no ambiguity about how close that bond was.
