Tributes as BBC star dies aged just 43 after cancer battle

Actress Emilie Dequenne was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer

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Emilie Dequenne has sadly died at the age of 43 after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The Belgian actress has passed away at the age of 43, two years after being diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma.

Adrenocortical carcinoma is the cancel of the adrenal gland and back in October 2023, Emilie revealed she was starting treatment. In April 2024, she had shared the good news she was in remission. At the time, she wrote in a hopeful post: "I was close to forgetting because I was leaving the hospital today after 13 days... What a tough battle."

However, sadly, the cancer returned at the end of last year. She told French television show TF1: "I know I will not live as long as planned," as she spoke openly about her condition deteriorating over the months.

Emilie will be best known to BBC viewers for her role as Laurence Relaud in The Missing, which was a hugely popular drama for the broadcaster. She also worked on the film Rosetta, which earned her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.

As well as her role in Rosetta, she also appeared in the likes of Wolf, Yes, But…, The Very Merry Widows, The Light, and Close as well as French language movies including The Girl On The Train and Our Children.

She also filmed her last movie Survive in late 2022, but later said she didn't know she was sick at the time. She told Action Elite: "So I’m fighting cancer, which is something really strange when you look at Survive and me fighting against all the crabs. But I didn’t know I was sick by the time I was shooting the movie, and I got sick almost like six or eight months later. I’m still fighting."

Emilie revealed it was her own experience of motherhood that encouraged her to take on the role. She said: "I can’t explain, but when you became a mother, it’s like your strength and your power and your braveness completely changed. And you see life through another vision. And that’s what completely attracted me when I read the script, is that for me, it was really realistic, actually despite the fact that, of course, it’s dystopic and I love that."

In The Missing, Emilie played Laurence Relaud - who is a local police officer that helps with the case by offering support and kindness to Tony Hughes, who is played by James Nesbitt. Tony's son Oliver goes missing in France, sparking a huge search as he's desperate to find out the truth of what happened to his son, finding it impossible to move on.

Away from The Missing, Emilie received the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 for her part in Rosetta, which also won a Palme d'Or. Elsewhere, she also picked up the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her part as Murielle in Our Children in 2012. She also won a Magritte Award for that role as was nominated for a Satellite Award too.

Emilie is survived by her husband Michel Ferracci and her daughter.

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