Beauty queen, 25, who died at Michael Owen’s stables after ‘falling from her horse’ believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest, says her half sister as she speaks out on tragedy
- Jessica Whalley, 25, died at Manor House Stables in Cheshire earlier this year
- READ MORE: Beauty queen died at Michael Owen’s stables ‘after falling from a horse’ just days before her 26th birthday, her friend claims
The half-sister of former beauty queen Jessica Whalley who died after falling from her horse at Michael Owen’s stables has spoken for the first time about the family tragedy.
Former beauty queen Jessica died at the ex Liverpool and England footballer’s Manor House Stables in Malpas, Cheshire, in what he tearfully described as ‘the worst day of my life’.
Now Jessica’s half-sister Leonna Mayor, a TV presenter for ITV and Sky Sports, has broken her silence on the tragedy of her 25-year-old half-sibling, who followed her into the world of racing.
Leonna said: ‘She was very young and I feel the pain of my grandmother and aunt who were very close to her.’
Explaining how Jessica died, she went on: ‘As far as we know, she cantered up the gallop on the first lot, got to the top and had a cardiac arrest.
Jessica (pictured) died earlier this year at Michael Owen’s stables in Cheshire, just days before her 26th birthday
‘They tried to resuscitate her for 30 minutes but they couldn’t bring her back. She has since had a post-mortem and nothing has shown up.
‘We assumed that something would come to light, a heart defect or something we didn’t know was there, but it hasn’t. We now have to wait for the blood tests – it’s six to 12 weeks for full blood works.’
Leonna found out about Jessica’s death when she was telephoned by her paternal aunt Joanne.
Revealing that she wasn’t brought up with Jessica, the daughter of farmer Michael Whalley and his second wife Gail, who slipped off her horse as she was coming back from exercising, she admitted that it was because she is estranged from her father.
‘We weren’t that close because my father hasn’t made much effort with his children over the years,’ explained Leonna, 32, who lives in Winsford, a town on the River Meaver, in Cheshire.
‘But I felt a really weird sad emptiness really, not being close to her or having a relationship for the last few years.
Jessica, who represented Britain in the 2019 Miss Tourism Universe pageant, died on March 28, five days before her 26th birthday party.
A post-mortem failed to reveal her cause of death and the family is still waiting for the toxicology results.
Jessica, who followed her half sister Leonna into the world of racing, was one of the transport managers at Manor House Stables
Leonna, who shares Jessica’s good looks, once being described as ‘the world’s sexiest jockey’, was speaking about her half-sister’s death to raise awareness of Brain Tumour Research: although it is not a cardiac charity, it can equally lead to a sudden death.
It is a subject close to her heart: the mother of a friend, a former professional jockey, was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was 14 and died five days later.
‘She had a headache, went to the doctors and five days later she died,’ she said sadly. ‘It just shows that you can be fine one day and not the next.’
According to Brain Tumour Research, tumours kill more adults and children under the age of 40 than any other cancer: in 2020 4,396 people in England died from a malignant brain tumour, 236 under the age of 40.
Yet just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research is dedicated to brain tumours: only £17,631,882 in 2020/2021 was spent on brain cancer research compared with £629,635,943 on all cancers.
Now Leonna (pictured) is raising awareness of another condition that can lead to sudden death: brain tumours
In order to raise awareness of the charity, as well as funds, a group of milliners have created 22 headpieces, in the King’s racing colours – scarlet, purple, black, and gold – to mark the Coronation.
The hats by milliners such as Princess Diana’s hatmaker Stephen Jones, the late Queen’s designer Rachel Trevor-Morgan, and Edwina Ibbotson, who designed Pippa Middleton’s hat for Prince George’s christening, will be auctioned next month.
Leonna became involved with the charity after one of the milliners, Lisa Tan, who has loaned her hats for the races, suggested she was a good fit.
‘Lisa mentioned it and I said: “I would love to be involved.”,’ she recalled. She said: “It would be great for you because of the crossover. You go to the races a lot anyway”. I said: “Give me the date of the photoshoot”.’
Jessica shared Leonna’s passion for horse racing. Leonna (pictured at Goodwood racecourse 2011) was once described as ‘the world’s sexiest jockey’
Leonna grew up on a council estate in Audley, a village on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent, in Staffordshire with her single mother Karen, an insurance loss adjustor.
It was only at the turn of the Millennium, when she was ten years old, that she discovered that her father lived in the same village.
Initially she thought she had landed the jackpot. Her father bought her a pony and she thought life was going to be ‘perfect’.
But she struggled to get on with her stepmother and has now lost touch with her father. Disappointed by her father’s rejection, she determined to create a better life for herself, becoming a successful jockey. She had 32 winners in five seasons.
You can bid on the hats created to raise money for Brain Tumour Research here.
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