The writer died unexpectedly on Sunday morning after a fall, with tributes pouring in following the news.
Dame Jilly’s children, Felix and Emily, have said it has come as a “complete shock”.
Now, Queen Camilla has paid her tribute, describing her as a “legend” and a “wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many”.
Queen Camilla pays tribute to friend Dame Jilly Cooper
Dame Jilly was Queen Camilla’s long-standing friend.
In fact, the author is said to have based her fictional seducer and showjumping lothario Rupert Campbell-Black partly on the Queen’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.
Camilla said in a message released by Buckingham Palace: “I was so saddened to learn of Dame Jilly’s death last night.
“Very few writers get to be a legend in their own lifetime but Jilly was one, creating a whole new genre of literature and making it her own through a career that spanned over five decades.
“In person, she was a wonderfully witty and compassionate friend to me and so many – and it was a particular pleasure to see her just a few weeks ago at my Queen’s Reading Room Festival, where she was, as ever, a star of the show.
RIP the fabulous Jilly Cooper. She was 88
Rupert Campbell Black had quite the influence on my early 20s pic.twitter.com/9ZRXal8n4n
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) October 6, 2025
“I join my husband, the King, in sending our thoughts and sympathies to all her family. And may her hereafter be filled with impossibly handsome men and devoted dogs.”
The message was signed “Camilla R”.
Dame Jilly Cooper dies aged 88 as tributes pour in
Dame Jilly was known for her steamy fiction focusing on scandal and adultery in upper-class society.
Her hit titles included Riders, Rivals, Polo, Mount! and The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous.
Various TV adaptations of the Rutshire Chronicles have been produced for ITV and Disney+, with the 2024 series Rivals starring David Tennant, Aidan Turner and Alex Hassell.
The first series was released in October last year, and the show has been recommissioned for a second series.
Rivals was nominated for various awards, including New Drama at the National Television Awards.
Executive producers of the Disney+ adaptation have said they are “broken-hearted” at the news of her death.
Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Alex Lamb said: “We have been so lucky to be able to call her our friend – and know that her legacy will endure in her writing, her television and the encouragement to have fun that she gave us all.”
Jilly’s agent, Felicity Blunt, described representing the author as “the privilege of my career”, meanwhile writer Simon Sebag Montefiore described her as “a treasure of national exuberance”.
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It was in the 2024 New Year Honours that Cooper was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), again for services to literature and charity.
Her children, Felix and Emily, said in a statement: “Mum was the shining light in all of our lives. Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds.
“Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock. We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.”
