Ross King: Death of my friend Jackie Collins is so hard to take

IT was early on Sunday morning when I got a phone call from Los Angeles to break the terrible news.

My good pal Jackie Collins had died after a long and very secret battle with breast cancer.

She had bravely kept it from just about everyone, including her own family so it came as an genuine shock to me and nearly everyone who knew her.

Jackie was known as a glamorous author and wee sister of Joan Collins and that’s how I first knew her.

Well before we met I’d read as many of her books as I could get my hands on, from her first, The World Is Full of Married Men, onwards.

I’d met her a couple of times before moving to Los Angeles to work as an Entertainment anchor on TV station KTLA more than 10 years ago.

A lovely handwritten note arrived from Jackie welcoming me and wishing me the best of luck.

For a stranger in a strange land it was quite a moving gesture.

After that we became firm friends, and she was a great friend to Brianna and me.

We’d go out for dinner regularly and Jackie would have us over to her home for drinksor even just a quick cuppa and a gossip.

Only last month she was at my wedding, and we were planning to go for dinner next month.

On Friday I was on This Morning talking about Jackie, her new book, The Santangelos, and saying what a good pal she was.

Jackie Collins (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

I was supposed to be reporting on the Emmys on Monday but instead there I was again on This Morning paying tribute to Jackie’s life.

It was just so unbelievably surreal and didn’t seem to make any sense.

It was also a wee bit upsetting for me, as anyone watching me talk about her would have seen.

I’ll always remember her laugh and how she loved to use it.

I interviewed her last year in front of an American audience here in LA.

“It must be difficult living in the shadow of a famous sibling,” I started off. “So how is Phil these days?”

The joke went down like a lead balloon with the crowd.

Jackie, though, bless her, was in fits of laughter.

It was down to Jackie’s influence that Shari Low and I started writing our Taking Hollywood series of books.

Jackie asked to see the manuscript which was nerve-racking.

She really liked it though, which was reassuring coming from an author who has sold 500 million books. Like your favourite teacher giving you a gold star for your ink exercise.

Jackie was a beautiful woman, inside and out.

Classy, sassy and did things her wonderful way. She was everything you want in a friend I loved her and I’ll miss her.