Fran Winston

Fran Winston tracks the most intense moments in celebrity lives and deaths, documenting how fame collides with tragedy, legacy and gossip. She is an entertainment journalist at the Daily Express US, covering celebrity news, television personalities and pop culture figures across music and screen.

Final hours and tragic celebrity deaths

Much of Winston’s recent work centres on how famous people die, the circumstances around their final hours and the impact on those left behind. She co-writes detailed accounts of high-profile losses, such as the re-examination of Natalie Wood’s death at 43, including the discovery of her body in the water off California’s Catalina Island and the enduring questions around that night.

She reports on sudden accidents, including the death of The Voice of Holland winner Ben Saunders at 43 after his body was found in water near Arnhem, presenting both the timeline of his disappearance and the official confirmation of his fate.

She covers medically focused stories like George Michael’s autopsy, explaining how heart disease and fatty liver were recorded as the cause of death while noting that close friends dispute whether drugs played a role. Winston chronicles causes of death in contemporary television and film, such as the report on Nashville star Hayden Panettiere, setting out law enforcement theories about a fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill and the pending toxicology findings.

Obituary-style features on figures like Star Trek actor James Sloyan and X Factor singer Danny Dearden bring in family tributes, career highlights and reactions from mentors such as Mel B, giving emotional context around the bare facts of their passing.

Royal protection, Diana and contested truths

Winston’s entertainment beat extends deep into the continuing story of the modern monarchy and the legacy of Princess Diana. She reports on broadcast interviews with former Head of Royal Protection Dai Davies, relaying his direct criticism of both Earl Charles Spencer and Prince Harry and his view of who is “telling the truth” about events around Diana’s life and death.

In these pieces she foregrounds voices with operational experience inside royal security, using their testimony to frame current disputes over memoirs and media narratives. She also follows the commercial fortunes of books tied to Diana’s story, including coverage of Earl Spencer’s memoir about his sister and the public humiliation implied by the title being pushed into half‑price sections shortly after release. Across these royal pieces she links entertainment television, publishing and family conflict rather than treating royal coverage as pure hard news.

Scandalous romances, estates and Hollywood nostalgia

Alongside deaths and royal disputes, Winston revisits the private lives and legacies of classic Hollywood figures. She co-writes features on scandalous relationships, such as Sophia Loren and Cary Grant’s 30‑year age gap romance, focusing on how that relationship shadows modern portrayals and dramatisations of Grant’s life. Her work on Natalie Wood brings together biography and mystery, revisiting earlier reporting and books to give readers a sense of the enduring fascination with her final hours.

Winston also covers estate planning and philanthropy at the intersection of celebrity and cultural institutions, including George Takei and his husband Brad’s pledge to leave an estate valued at over $21 million to the Japanese American National Museum. These stories combine financial specifics, long-term romantic partnerships and the question of how stars want to be remembered, reinforcing her interest in the afterlives of fame.

Health struggles, live TV and music industry stories

Winston regularly connects health crises with public performance and television appearances. She has reported on an actor declared clinically dead by doctors before “coming back to life”, shaping the piece around the medical shock and the human aftermath rather than simple sensationalism. Her coverage of Donald Trump’s apparent struggle to breathe during a Fox News appearance treats a political figure as an entertainment subject, describing visible signs of ill‑health and situating them within broader claims about a downward spiral. On the music side of her beat, she writes about performers who balance serious medical challenges with ongoing work, as in her coverage of a Busted band member releasing new music while awaiting life‑extending surgery. This thread ties together celebrity illness, the demands of public careers and how stars manage their image when health becomes part of their narrative.

Across these strands, Winston’s distinguishing feature is the way she uses entertainment reporting to trace beginnings and endings: the start of romances and estates, the final hours of lives, and the moments when health and legacy become inseparable from fame.