David Bowie has left $2 million to his closest confidante for the last 43 years, Corinne "Coco" Schwab

The news that David Bowie has left $2 million to his PA in his will makes him sound like a very generous boss. But Corinne "Coco" Schwab was much more than the pop star’s secretary. By Bowie’s side continuously for 46 years, he described Schwab as his best friend and credited her with saving his life in the Seventies when she helped him kick drugs. There were some suggestions that she may have been his lover for a time, and she aroused jealously for her close guard of Bowie, provoking the ire of Angie Bowie.

Schwab started working for Bowie in London in 1973 when she answered an advert in the London Evening Standard from Bowie’s management company MainMan asking for a “girl Friday for a busy office.” After working in the office for six months, Bowie invited Schwab to become his personal assistant as he toured around America. She appears with Bowie in Alan Yentob’s 1974 documentary, Cracked Actor, travelling with the singer around LA.