Death of Jane Birkin: the tragic death of her daughter Kate Barry, who fell from the 4th floor, a terrible drama

In December 2013, Jane Birkin who died on July 16, 2023, faced the worst pain of all: the death of her daughter. Photographer Kate Barry, her eldest daughter born of her relationship with the late composer John Barry, did not survive a terrible fall. She fell from the fourth floor of her new home in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. His body was found in the yard, lifeless. She was only 46 years old.

“My luck was Kate. It was with Kate that I arrived in France. I don’t even remember a time when she wasn’t there, which is why it’s all the more disturbing to pass her now that she’s gone.“, she had declared a year after the death of her child. And to continue on her pain: “CIt’s true that, when you’ve hit rock bottom, a monumental scare sets in for the confidence you could have had in life. (…) I was absolutely sure that if I was there, nothing would happen… I was sure of myself in fact, as a mother. And then when it happened with Kate, during the eleven months there, I didn’t even cook once, I had no more confidence in myself, to do anything, to take care of a small child …it removes all belief in oneself. Something has taken hold that wasn’t there before.“

A tribute in song

A few years later, while promoting Oh ! Sorry you were sleepingan opus written by Etienne Daho, Jane Birkin again evoked the death of Kate Barry for whom the singer-songwriter had written a title, Cigarettes. “Kate died seven years ago, and there was no question of doing anything anymore. Then I left with the Gainsbourg symphonique (his previous album released in 2017, Ed). In the meantime, I had worked for Étienne to produce Lou’s first album (Doillon), because I knew he had a unique way of showing people off. That she would be protected with him, in a marvelous setting… “This interrogation on the possibility of the accident, this stupor that one feels when one learns terrible news. I don’t remember having to do anything more difficult than (Jane Birkin) direct on Cigarettes : I was upset“, had for his part confided Etienne Daho.

Kate’s death of course touched the whole clan, Charlotte Gainsbourg had also paid tribute to her with a song, Oxalistitle appearing on his album Rest (2017). “I loved this song about Katehad confided Jane Birkin. When Charlotte cites the names of people on the graves around, I thought to myself that she must have stayed a long time to note all that.”