Bond overcome by wife's sudden death

STAFF REPORTER, The West Australian Updated January 29, 2012, 9:00 pm

Alan Bond leaving his Cottesloe mansion this morning. Picture: Ian Munro

UPDATE Sunday 2.55pm: Grieving former tycoon Alan Bond has spoken briefly with reporters expressing his loss at the sudden death of wife Diana Bliss yesterday.

"It's so new... I've lost my beautiful wife," he told assembled media after being asked how he was in Cottesloe today.

Diana Bliss is understood to have been in a depressed and fragile state in the days leading up to her death yesterday.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the 57-year-old at the couple's luxury home in Hawkestone Street, Cottesloe.

3AW entertainment reporter Peter Ford has paid tribute to Ms Bliss, a former theatre producer, on Twitter.

“Diana Bliss was a gifted woman and lover of the arts but sadly also a deeply troubled woman who did try to get help." he wrote.

“Close friends had been seriously worried for some time.

“Even the best medical and psychological help here and overseas couldn't save her.

“Money doesn't buy happiness is the old cliche, and true, but also mental health issues know no boundaries of class, fame or beauty.”

An ashen-faced Alan Bond was this morning seen leaving and returning to his Cottesloe mansion.

A police spokeswoman said they had received a call about the death from St John Ambulance officers about 11.30am yesterday.

It is understood Ms Bliss' body was found in a swimming pool at the rear of the property.

A police spokeswoman said a person at the residence, believed to be Mr Bond, had called St John Ambulance.

Yesterday, police were at the scene and a coroner's vehicle that left the house is believed to have carried away Ms Bliss’ body.

The WA Police Coronial Investigation Unit will conduct an inquiry for the coroner.

Mr Bond married Ms Bliss in 1995 after divorcing his first wife Eileen Bond in 1992.

Mr Bond's eldest daughter Susanne died in her Peppermint Grove home in 2000 after overdosing on morphine.

Mr Bond, linked to one of the biggest corporate collapses in Australian history, was declared bankrupt in 1992 and in 1997 was sentenced to four years jail for fraud.