Jethro Lazenby, model and son of Australian singer Nick Cave, has died. He was 30 years old.
“With great sadness, I can confirm that my son, Jethro, has passed away. We would appreciate the family’s privacy at this time,” Cave said in a statement to media.
No cause of death or other details were given.
Australian media reports that Lazenby was released on bail on May 5 after being found guilty of physically assaulting his mother in March. His attorney said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The BBC reports that Lazenby spent time in jail in 2018 for violently attacking his then-girlfriend.
Born in Melbourne in 1991, Lazenby was Cave’s son with model Beau Lazenby. He was born just 10 days before Cave’s second son, Luke, to his first wife, Brazilian journalist and fashion designer Viviane Carneiro.
He modeled for several years, walking the runway for Balenciaga, John Varvatos, Costume National and Versace. He also acted in two films, Corroborated (2007) and 2011 My little princesswhich starred Isabelle Huppert.
In 2012, Lazenby, while using his father’s surname, told the London evening standard that his relationship with his father was strained. “I haven’t had the easiest life,” he told the Standard. “It didn’t start out so well, having all this shit with my dad and being in his shadow.”
Lazenby revealed to the newspaper that he didn’t meet his father until he was “about seven, eight” years old.
Cave opened up about his relationship with Lazenby in a 2008 interview with the Guardian. “To my eternal regret, I didn’t have much contact with Jethro in the early years, but I now have a great relationship with him,” he said. “It was difficult at the time, but it went well in the end.”
Lazenby’s death comes seven years after Cave’s 15-year-old son Arthur Cave fell off a cliff in Brighton, England. An inquest into the death revealed the teenager had taken LSD before he died. Arthur Cave was the son of the musician with his current wife Susie.
Arthur Cave’s death greatly influenced the 2016 album Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds skeleton tree and its 2019 follow-up Ghost and was also alluded to in the 2016 documentary Once again with feeling.