Dame Diana Rigg left a surprise bequest from her £3.3million estate to her local nail salon manager.
But beautician Jessica Zhu, who was with the actress on the day she died, has decided not to keep the £5,000 left to her, the Daily Mail can reveal.
‘I told Diana’s daughter that the money should go to her grandson because I did what I did out of love. We had a very special relationship,’ she said.
Miss Zhu (43), began performing star manicures at the Nail Gallery, Chelsea, west London, in 2001.
But until another customer pointed it to her, she didn’t realize she was a world-famous actor.
Dame Diana Rigg (pictured) left a surprise bequest from her £3.3million estate to her local nail salon manager
But beautician Jessica Zhu (pictured middle), who was with the actress on the day she died, has decided not to keep the £5,000 left to her
‘She was so generous and down to earth you wouldn’t know… she was happy with simple things in life like a cup of coffee,’ she said.
Dame Diana, who was famously seen in TV in 1965 as Emma Peel (a tongue-in-cheek spy series). She would visit the salon about every two weeks or before a film shoot.
‘Diana treated all the girls at the salon like family and was a very knowledgeable lady who gave us advice on life,’ said Miss Zhu.
‘We are very fortunate to have had her as a customer.’
The beautician visited Diana after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2020. She continued to see Diana every day until her passing in September, at the age of 82.
She said: ‘I was very fortunate that Diana wanted to say goodbye to me when she was ill and in hospital in March. Because I wanted to be there for her, I stayed with her until the end. We had the same old chats as we had in the salon.
‘I was very sad when she passed away – she always told me not to be upset when she was dying.
‘I didn’t realise Diana left £5,000 for me because I was with her out of love and kindness and told her I did not want anything from her.’
The money will go to Jack Stirling Garvey, four, son of Dame Diana’s actress daughter Rachel Stirling and Guy Garvey, 47, singer with the rock band Elbow
The beautician visited Diana when she was diagnosed in March 2020 with cancer and continued to see her every day until her death in September at the age of 82.
Legal documents show that Dame Diana’s estate is worth £3,368,886. She left around £3million to Miss Stirling and gave £280,500 to relatives and charities, including £50,000 to both Great Ormond Street Hospital and the St Christopher’s Hospice in south east London, and £20,000 to the Earls Court Youth Club.
She also gave £500 to the Other Club, a Savoy Hotel dining society set up by Winston Churchill in 1911.
She asked for it to be used ‘to provide wine at the next gathering after my death and for me to be acknowledged in the menu but not toasted’.
After making her name in The Avengers, Dame Diana became the only woman to truly marry James Bond, in the 1969 007 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
She won critical acclaim later on stage in the Greek tragedy Medea, and was a guest star until 2017 in the fantasy series Game of Thrones.
She was widely recognized and won Emmy, Tony, and BAFTA awards throughout her 50-year career. Last Night In Soho, which she starred in last Friday, was her final film role.
Filming had ended just weeks before Dame Diana died and she was described as a ‘trouper’ by director Edgar Wright.