Dr Rachel Owen, Academic & Ex-partner Of Thom Yorke, Dies At 48

A prolific artist and celebrated lecturer and scholar, Thom Yorke’s former partner, Rachel Owen, has passed away aged 48 following a battle with cancer.

According to the Pembroke College website - the university where Owen was a retained lecturer in Italian – she passed away on Sunday.

“Dr Owen was an internationally renowned artist – mixing photography and printmaking – and at the same time a scholar in medieval Italian literature,” reads an obituary on the university’s website.

“Despite her declining health from cancer in the last year, she asked to continue to teach, which she did right until the end of last Michaelmas term.

“One of her latest artistic productions was a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante’s first book of the Divine Comedy.”

Owen and Yorke were together for 23 years, having two children during that time, and it is reported that Radiohead’s latest album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was largely inspired by their break-up in August last year.