Samantha Bassey: How did Shirley Bassey’s daughter die?

Samantha Bassey was the daughter of Shirley Bassey. Samantha Bassey’s mother is a Welsh singer. She is one of the first Black British entertainers to gain national and international fame. She is best known for her career longevity, powerful voice, and recording the theme songs to three James Bond films-  Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979). She became the first Welsh person to gain a number-one single on the UK Singles Chart. Bassey is widely regarded as one of the most popular vocalists in Britain.

Samantha Bassey: Bio Summary

How old was Samantha Bassey when she died?

Shirley Bassey’s daughter, Samantha Bassey was born in 1963 in the United Kingdom. Samantha was 22 years old when she sadly died. Samantha was Dame Shirley’s second daughter and was brought up while she was married to her second husband Sergio Novak. Samantha had two siblings- a sister Sharon Novak and a brother Mark Novak.

The father of Bassey’s two daughters is unknown. Bassey’s first husband Kenneth Hume suggested that Samantha, born during the couple’s marriage, was the result of an affair between Bassey and Peter Finch. However, the singer has not confirmed this claim.

ALSO, READ; Sergio Novak: Where is Shirley Bassey’s ex-husband now?

What happened to Shirley Bassey’s daughter, how did she die?

Shirley Bassey’s daughter Samantha was found in the river in Bristol in August 1985, nine days after leaving a pub where she had been drinking. Initial reports by the police concluded that she ‘just fell in’ and it was a tragic accident. At her inquest the coroner recorded an open verdict, saying she had died from shock due to unexpected submersion into water and there was no evidence of foul play.

Bassey has always maintained that the death of her daughter was not a suicide. In an interview, the grieving singer said: ‘I never believed that [it was suicide] . . . if she’d jumped off the bridge, all her bones would have been broken. But there was not a bone broken. She did not have a mark on her. She didn’t have any water in her lungs. If someone’s drowning, they gasp, don’t they?“

 ALSO, READ; Mark Novak: What happened to Shirley Bassey’s son?

She continued to say- “It’s bothered me all this time. Because if she didn’t have any bruises or broken bones, where did she fall?, And if she didn’t fall from the bridge . . . My imagination goes wild.“

Dame Shirley Bassey said her voice failed her after the death of her daughter, Samantha Bassey. In the months following her daughter’s death, the celebrated singer said she damaged her voice by singing through grief. The Welsh performer believes she was rushed into performing to deal with her feelings. While Speaking to comedian David Walliams, the singer said: “It was just devastating. I went home and after a week of being alone I woke up one day and said, ‘I have to go back on stage, this is killing me‘.

She continued- “What had happened was, instead of staying home and grieving and getting it out my system, that I was singing it (grief) through the songs and I probably wasn’t breathing in the right places and panicking.“

ALSO, READ; Kenneth Hume: What happened to Shirley Bassey’s ex-husband?

Samantha Bassey’s death took a toll on the singer and she was unable to sing for six months until she began work with a vocal coach. Grieving Shirley retreated to her home in Switzerland. “Children should bury their ­parents, not the other way round.”- She told Mirror.

ALSO, READ; Mark Novak: What happened to Shirley Bassey’s son?

On 24 March 2010, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed to the Dailymail they were undertaking fresh inquiries into the death and specifically claimed that the convicted killer Michael Moffat was involved in her death. However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation had come to an end, concluding that there was “no evidence of any criminal act involved” in Samantha Bassey’s death.