Lesley Nicol is in mourning following the death of her husband David Heald.
Lesley Nichol's husband has died
The 'Downton Abbey' star's agent, Paul Pearson, has confirmed the sad news that the spiritual healer - who was also known as Da'aboth Te'He'Ling - has passed away and thanked the 68-year-old actress' fans for their messages of support.
Paul told The Sun newspaper in a statement: "I would like to confirm the passing of Lesley’s beloved husband David Heald, known to all his wonderful friends as Da’arboth.
"Da’arboth was an amazing, unique and inspirational man who was always at Lesley’s side, ‘her warrior’
We are all processing this unexpected turn of events and Lesley would like to thank everyone for their loving and kind messages of support."
No more details about David's death have been released.
Lesley has been away in the US in recent months performing her one-woman stage show, 'How The Hell Did I Get Here?'
The couple married in 2007 and the veteran actress previously explained she didn't want to rush into marriage despite friends insisting she had lost her chance.
She said: "I got married for the first time when I was just gone 50.
"People used to say to me, ‘You won’t meet anybody now’. Well I did. I had to wait for that opportunity and that person because it wasn’t there before. And then it was."
She added of her husband: "I’m very lucky to have a husband who cooks for a start. It’s a good partnership. I met him through a friend and we just hit it off.
"He is a martial artist and he does lots of spiritual stuff like Reiki. But he is interested in our world.
"We just got back from the Monaco TV festival. It would be awful if I was dragging him to these things and he felt ill at ease. But he doesn’t. He’s off talking to anybody. He is very comfortable in his own skin."