Lisa Maxwell’s Daughter Beau Jessup Dies at 27 While Studying Journalism at Columbia
Beau Jessup, the 27-year-old daughter of British actress and television presenter Lisa Maxwell, has died unexpectedly while studying for a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York.
Columbia Journalism School announced her death in a statement posted to its Instagram account on Wednesday. “Columbia Journalism School mourns the loss of Beau Jessup, a student in our M.S. program,” the statement said. “We join Jessup’s family, friends and classmates in remembering her.”
No cause of death has been released, and no further details about the circumstances have been made public. The university described her death as unexpected.
What we know so far
Jessup was a student in Columbia’s Master of Science journalism programme and a member of the school’s Class of 2027. She was due to graduate in May 2027, around six months from now.
She had been pictured with her classmates in a Class of 2027 photograph shared by the school in September. Her mother reposted the image on X at the time, writing: “Congratulations guys! Especially my daughter Beau over in NYC making us all super proud.”
The school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, emailed Jessup’s fellow students with the news. “There is no easy way to share news of this nature and I recognise how painful it is to receive messages like this one,” he wrote. “Any loss within our school family is difficult to process, and our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to Beau’s family and friends during this heartbreaking time.”
Who Beau Jessup was
Jessup was the only child of Lisa Maxwell and her husband, Paul Jessup. Before moving to the United States, she studied Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Writing for Performance at the University of Cambridge.
She was already known as a young entrepreneur before she turned to journalism. As a teenager, she created a website that helped Chinese parents choose Western names for their children based on their ideals and characteristics. In a 2016 interview, she said the site had earned her almost £50,000 and helped around 220,000 parents. That same year, she was invited to give a TEDx Talk about how she built the idea into a business.
Columbia shared an interview Jessup had given to the school in the weeks before her death, with her family’s permission. In it, she explained why she had chosen journalism. “I want to work as a journalist and writer, reporting on people, culture, and social questions with the rigor I’m learning at Columbia,” she said. “I’m particularly drawn to journalism for its power and immediacy.”
She also reflected on growing up with a famous parent. “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,” she said. “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.”
Lisa Maxwell and her family
Lisa Maxwell is best known in the UK for playing Detective Inspector Samantha Nixon in the long-running ITV police drama The Bill, a role she held from 2002, and as a panellist on the daytime talk show Loose Women. She began her career as a child actress and later became one of British television’s most familiar faces.
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Maxwell has not made a public statement about her daughter’s death at the time of publication. Tributes from friends, colleagues and viewers have filled social media since the news emerged, with many noting that Jessup was only months away from completing the degree she had worked towards for years.
Why this matters
The death of a 27-year-old student so close to graduation has struck a chord well beyond the world of celebrity news. Jessup was not a public figure in her own right, but the daughter of one — and the story has been widely shared because of the suddenness of the loss and the life she was building for herself in New York.
It also underlines how little is yet known. With no cause of death released, speculation is inevitable, and the family and the university have asked, in effect, for the facts to be allowed to speak for themselves. For now, the only confirmed facts are the university’s announcement, her age, her course of study, and the tributes from those who knew her.
Latest developments
As of Thursday evening, neither Columbia University nor Jessup’s family had released any further information about the cause or circumstances of her death. No funeral or memorial arrangements have been announced publicly.
The university has not said whether it plans a formal memorial for Jessup. Her classmates and teachers are expected to be offered support in the coming days, and any further statement is likely to come from the school or the family.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Beau Jessup?
Beau Jessup was a 27-year-old journalism student at Columbia University in New York and the only child of British actress and television presenter Lisa Maxwell and her husband, Paul Jessup. Before Columbia, she studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge, and as a teenager she built a successful website helping Chinese parents choose Western names for their children.
How did Beau Jessup die?
No cause of death has been released. Columbia University described her death as unexpected, and neither the school nor her family has shared further details about the circumstances.
What was Beau Jessup studying at Columbia?
She was studying for a Master of Science degree in journalism at Columbia Journalism School and was a member of the Class of 2027, due to graduate in May 2027.
Who is Lisa Maxwell?
Lisa Maxwell is a British actress and television presenter best known for playing Detective Inspector Samantha Nixon in ITV’s The Bill and as a panellist on the daytime talk show Loose Women.
The death was announced in the same week ITV confirmed the line-up for I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, with former England captain Wayne Rooney among the stars heading to the jungle. For more celebrity news, NNews will update this story if Columbia University or the family releases further information.
Sources: LADbible; Just Jared; Parade; Hello Magazine; Entertainment Daily.
