Marianne Faithfull is being treated in a London hospital after contracting coronavirus.
The singer, who also has pneumonia, is “stable and responding to treatment”, according to her agent.
Penny Arcade, a performer and friend of Faithfull’s, told Rolling Stone the star had self-isolated after having symptoms of a cold, and then checked herself into hospital last Monday (30 March) where she tested positive for coronavirus.
Arcade also wrote on Facebook: “She has withstood and survived so much in her life – including being Marianne Faithfull – that to be taken down by a virus would be such a tragedy.”
On Instagram Arcade cited Faithfull’s ex-husband John Dunbar as saying: “So far so good. But also that she can barely speak and no visitors.”
Faithfull, 73, has had numerous health issues throughout her life. She suffered from anorexia in the 70s, and later had breast cancer, hepatisis C and arthritis.
The singer rose to fame in the swinging sixties, with hits including “As Tears Go By”, which was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and was released when she was just 16.
Faithfull later dated Jagger and the two were an iconic couple in the 60s, even though she was married to Dunbar and had a son with him.
She had a tumultuous career from the 70s onwards, suffering from a heroin addiction but releasing acclaimed albums such as Broken English and collaborating with producer Hal Willner on the 1987 album Strange Weather, as well as with Twin Peaks music producer Angelo Badalamenti on 1995’s A Secret Life.
In the early 2000s she released the albums Kissin’ Time and Before the Poison, and her latest record was 2018’s Negative Culpability.
