Kate Barry was the daughter of Jane Birkin who was a British fashion photographer, who worked for Vogue and The Sunday Times Magazine. On 16 July 2023, Jane Birkin died in Paris, France. Kate was known for her intimate photographs of famous people and released a book Dinard : Essai d’autobiographie immobilière in collaboration with journalist Jean Rolin, in 2012.

Who was Kate Barry?

Kate Barry was born to Jane Birkin, an English-French actress and singer and father, John Barry, a composer whose original surname was Prendergast. Her maternal grandmother, Judy Campbell, was an actress, and her uncle, Andrew Birkin, was a filmmaker. She was reared in France by her mother and her mother’s lover, Serge Gainsbourg, when the family relocated there from England when she was a youngster.

Until her mother’s divorce from Gainsbourg in 1980, she had no contact with her biological father. Barry’s mother also gave birth to two sisters: French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and American actress Lou Doillon.

Her father’s side of the family included her half-sisters Suzy and Sian and her half-brother Jon-Patrick. She and her boyfriend, Pascal Huon de Kermadec, had a son, Roman de Kermadec, in 1987.

Kate Barry cause of death

Kate Barry died from an addiction to drugs and alcohol over many years. Barry’s problems with using drugs started when she was a teenager and continued throughout her life.

She became sober in the early 1990s and used that time to start the nonprofit Aide et Prévention des Toxicodépendances par l’Entraide (APTE), which provides counselling for recovering drug users.

Barry’s death on 11 December 2013 was initially declared a suicide when she fell from her fourth-floor flat in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Charlotte Gainsbourg, her sister, afterwards denied the suicide rumours, stating, “I want to believe it’s an accident,” but she acknowledged that it was hard to know for sure. In Paris, Barry was laid to rest.