Bryan Ferry sons are left £3.5m in will by his ex-wife

SOCIETY figure Lucy Birley, who took her own life last summer, left virtually nothing in her will to her husband, nightclub boss Robin Birley.

I can disclose that former model Lucy, 58, shared her entire £3.65 million fortune among her four sons from her previous marriage to rock star Bryan Ferry.

In an indication that she planned her death, Lucy signed a codicil to the will just six days before she killed herself — making her brother Charles Helmore one of her executors, along with a solicitor, in place of her cousin and niece.

Her will, drawn up in 2013, stipulated that the capital of her estate should go to her sons, Merlin, Isaac, Tara and Otis Ferry, six months after her death. They also received all her personal chattels.

Robin, the son of Annabel’s nightclub founder Mark Birley and stepson of the late Sir James Goldsmith, received only the interest on Lucy’s capital until it was distributed to her sons.

A friend of Robin tells me: ‘She had long planned to leave all her money to her children.’

Probate records reveal that Lucy left more than £3.5 million after debts were settled. She and Birley, 60, whom she married in 2006, owned separate homes.

Lucy died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound in the bed and breakfast cottage run by another brother, Mark Helmore, in Ireland. She had been suffering from depression for some years, and a coroner at an inquest in Ireland recorded a suicide verdict.

She stated in her will that she wanted her ashes scattered at her mother’s graveside near St Patrick’s Church, New Quay, County Clare.

Convent-educated Lucy was already a successful model when she met Roxy Music singer Ferry, and she was pictured in 1982 on the cover of the band’s final album, Avalon.

Lucy and Ferry married the same year, and she was credited with helping him overcome an addiction to cocaine.

But his workaholic tendencies and her own struggles with addiction put a strain on their marriage, and they divorced in 2003.

Lucy was in a social circle which was beset with tragedy. Her close friends, fashion designer Alexander McQueen and style guru Isabella Blow, both took their own lives.