Press in France are reporting that Annik Honoré, former girlfriend of Joy Division‘s Ian Curtis, has passed away.
Libération and a number of other sources have written that Honoré – from Belgium – died at the age of 56, after a long illness, leaving two children.
The Nottingham Post also states that Curtis’ former Joy Division bandmate Peter Hook announced the news of Honoré’s passing onstage last night (July 3) at the Rescue Rooms, telling the crowd at the start of his set that she had died.
Curtis’ relationship with Honoré was said to have inspired the song ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. At the time of their affair Curtis was still married to his wife Deborah. Following the release of the film Control, which was based on Deborah Curtis’ book Touching from a Distance, Honoré revealed that her relationship with Ian was “very chaste”.
She commented: “It was a completely pure and platonic relationship, very childish, very chaste… I did not have a sexual relationship with Ian, he was on medication, which rendered it a non-physical relationship. I am so fed up that people question my word or his: people can say whatever they want, but I am the only person to have his letters…”.
Ian Curtis committed suicide in May 1980 at the age of 23.