Daughter of beloved British actress dies suddenly at 27 while studying at Columbia University

“The Bill” alumna Beau Jessup’s daughter Lisa Maxwell has died. She was 27 years old.

Columbia University in New York announced the journalism student’s unexpected death via Instagram on Wednesday.

“We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, classmates and all those who knew and loved her,” a separate statement said.

Although the Ivy League school has not revealed Jessup’s cause of death, it has released a never-before-seen interview with Jessup from last month, conducted as part of its “Notebook” series.

According to the university, the student was attracted to “cultural journalism, particularly the ways in which institutions, identity and social expectations influence the way we live and understand each other.”

Jessup told the publication that his interest in reporting was sparked while studying social anthropology and writing for performance at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge, respectively.

He was six months short of receiving his master’s degree in May 2027.

In the interview, Jessup also discussed growing up in a famous household with her mother, a “Loose Women” panelist, explaining, “As the daughter of a television actress, I grew up with an unusual awareness of the distance between people’s lives and the stories told about them.”

“I saw how journalism could illuminate someone’s experiences, but also how those experiences could be distorted, simplified or transformed into a public narrative over which the subject had very little control,” she said.

“From a young age, I was curious about who could tell people’s stories and what happened when those stories entered the public domain,” Jessup continued.

Additionally, the writer had a passion for theater and wrote her first play, “The Sandbag,” while studying at Cambridge University.

Jessup also outlined her goals after graduation, explaining how she wanted to pursue “reporting on people, culture and social issues.”

“I am particularly drawn to journalism for its power and immediacy,” she said, adding that she also wanted to write and was inspired by journalists who could report and write plays.

Jessup made headlines in 2016 when she launched her website SpecialName, a site that helps Chinese parents choose English nicknames for their children, which earned her more than $60,000.

Maxwell welcomed her daughter with her husband, Paul Jessup, in October 1999. The couple, who married in July 2014, have yet to speak out about the tragedy.