‘Heartbroken’ Maggie Beer reveals how she is coping after her daughter Saskia’s death aged 46 – as she says: ‘This year has been the worst of my life’
Maggie Beer’s daughter Saskia died unexpectedly in February at the age of 46.
And while the celebrity chef, 75, has found solace in the fact Saskia’s death was ‘peaceful’, she still believes this year has been ‘the worst’ of her life.
A tearful Maggie told The Australian Women’s Weekly that her ‘broken-hearted’ family is now attempting to turn their trauma into a lasting legacy.
Celebrity chef Maggie Beer reveals how her ‘heartbroken’ family has turned their trauma of her daughter Saskia’s unexpected death at 46 into a lasting legacy
When asked how she was coping with the loss eight months on, Maggie honestly revealed that she was still working through the ‘trauma’.
‘I don’t know that you do cope. You find things to do, to engage you. I don’t know that anyone really copes. Your life is changed forever and this year has been the worst of my life. But you have to turn your trauma into new things,’ she said.
Tragic: Maggie announced the sudden passing of her daughter at the age of 46 on February 16 – having died unexpectedly in her sleep
‘I don’t know that anyone really copes’: Maggie candidly claimed she is still working through the ‘trauma’ as he life has ‘changed forever’
‘We’ve created a Churchill Fellowship in Saskia’s honour’: Maggie and husband Colin’s priorities have been to help Saskia’s three children through their grief, and set up a fellowship to keep the respected chef and businesswoman’s memory and legacy alive
Maggie and husband Colin’s priorities have been to help Saskia’s three children – Max, 23, Lilly, 21, and Rory, 17 – through their grief by ‘being there’ and continuing to ‘talk about things Sassy would love’.
Keeping Saskia’s spirit, memory and legacy alive, the family have created a fellowship in the respected chef and businesswoman’s honour.
‘We’ve created a Churchill Fellowship in Saskia’s honour, so her name will be perpetually there to in some way continue the work she was doing in terms of farming innovation,’ Maggie added proudly.
Due to the current travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, the inaugural fellowship will be granted in 2022.
Gratitude: Maggie Beer thanked her family, friends and fans for their messages of support, six days after the death of her daughter, Saskia
Several thousand paid their respects to Saskia when she passed, from famous chefs, and school friends, to market regulars, customers, and fans who knew her from TV.
‘The overwhelming outpouring of sympathy and support for Maggie, Colin and family during this tragic time has been truly moving,’ Maggie wrote at the time.
In addition to Saskia, Maggie also shares another daughter, Elli, with her husband of 50 years, Colin Beer.
‘Saskia inherited my instinct for food, which I inherited from my father. Her knowledge of farming to cooking is amazing,’ Maggie proudly told The Australian Women’s Weekly in November 2018