Rachel Owen dead: Artist, lecturer and former partner of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke dies age 48

Dr Rachael Owen (Pembroke College Oxford)

Rachel Owen, the artist, lecturer and former partner of Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, has died at the age of 48.

In an obituary posted shared on the University of Oxford’s Pembroke College’s website, where Owen was a retained lecturer in Italian, it said she had continued teaching despite her “declining health from cancer” and announced that she died on Sunday.

The obituary describes Owen as an “internationally renowned” artist. She was also a printmaker and scholar in medieval Italian literature at the prestigious university.

She studied for her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London and studied her undergraduate degree in Italian and Fine Art at Exeter University, which is where she met the Radiohead frontman.

The couple separated last year with Yorke saying the break-up after “23 highly creative and happy years” was “perfectly amicable”.

She is survived by her children with Yorke, Noah, 15, and Agnes,12.

A representative for Yorke declined to comment.