Painter Lucian Freud's pals feared he'd commit suicide after wife left

London, Feb 20 (ANI): Lucian Freud was so devastated after his second wife left him that his friends feared he would kill himself.

Caroline Blackwood, the eldest child of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness, was said to be his social and intellectual match.

She provided him with money, a home in Dorset and a classic Alvis car, although the artist never passed his driving test.

He was so upset when she ended their five-year marriage that he could not bring himself to return to the home they shared in London's Soho.

His friend Charlie Lumley and the artist Francis Bacon spent hours with Freud as he tried to come to terms with the end of the relationship.

"We were worried he might top himself," the Telegraph quoted Lumley as telling a Sunday newspaper. When Caroline left him I was asked to look after him by his friends, including Francis Bacon.

"I remember Bacon being terrified that Lu might go on the balcony and throw himself off. Lu was in a really bad way so I had to make sure he wouldn't do anything silly," he said.

Lumley also said he had to rescue a couple of paintings from the Soho house.

"Lu could never go back as he was too upset," he added. (ANI)