The 25-year-old beauty queen who died in Michael Owen’s stables went into cardiac arrest, says half-sister

The half-sister of former beauty queen Jessica Whalley who died after a fall from her horse at Michael Owen’s stables has spoken out about the family tragedy for the first time.

Former beauty queen Jessica died at the ex-Liverpool and England footballer’s Manor House Stables in Malpas, Cheshire, in what he tearfully described as ‘the worst day of my life’.

Now Jessica’s half-sister Leonna Mayor, a TV presenter for ITV and Sky Sports, has broken her silence over the tragedy of her 25-year-old half-brother, who followed her into racing.

Leonna said, “She was very young and I feel the pain of my grandmother and aunt who were very close to her.”

She explained how Jessica died and continued, “As far as we know, she galloped up the first lot, reached the top and went into cardiac arrest.

“They tried to resuscitate her for 30 minutes, but they couldn’t bring her back. She has since had a post-mortem and nothing has turned up.

“We assumed something would come to light, a heart defect or something we didn’t know was there, but it hasn’t. We now have to wait for the blood tests – it’s six to 12 weeks for full blood tests.’

Leonna learned about Jessica’s death when she received a call from her paternal aunt Joanne.

Revealing that she hadn’t grown up with Jessica, the daughter of farmer Michael Whalley and his second wife Gail, slipping off her horse when she returned from sports, she admitted it was because she was estranged from her father.

‘We weren’t that close because my dad hasn’t put much effort into his kids over the years,’ explains Leonna, 32, from Winsford, a town on the River Meaver, Cheshire.

“But I actually felt a really weird, sad void, because I hadn’t been close to her or in a relationship for the past few years.

Jessica, who represented Britain in the 2019 Miss Tourism Universe pageant, died on March 28, five days before her 26th birthday party.

A post-mortem failed to reveal her cause of death and the family is still awaiting toxicology results.

Jessica, who followed her half-sister Leonna into racing, was one of the transport managers at Manor House Stables

Leonna, who looks just as good as Jessica and was once described as “the sexiest jockey in the world,” spoke about her half-sister’s death to raise awareness of brain tumor research: While it’s not a cardiac charity, it could just as well be well lead to sudden death.

It’s a subject close to her heart: a friend’s mother, a former professional jockey, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was 14 and died five days later.

“She had a headache, went to the doctor and five days later she died,” she said sadly. “It just goes to show that things can go well one day and not the next.”

According to Brain Tumor Research, tumors kill more adults and children under the age of 40 than any other cancer: in 2020, 4,396 people in England died of a malignant brain tumour, 236 people under the age of 40.

Yet only one per cent of national spending on cancer research is spent on brain tumours: just £17,631,882 in 2020/2021 was spent on brain cancer research, compared to £629,635,943 on all cancers.

Now Leonna (pictured) is raising awareness about another condition that can lead to sudden death: brain tumors

To raise awareness of the charity and funds, a group of milliners created 22 hats in the King’s racing colors – scarlet, purple, black and gold – to mark the coronation.

The hats of milliners such as Stephen Jones, Princess Diana’s milliner, Rachel Trevor-Morgan, the late Queen’s designer, and Edwina Ibbotson, who designed Pippa Middleton’s hat for Prince George’s christening, will be up for auction next month.

Leonna became involved with the charity after one of the hatters, Lisa Tan, who had lent her hats for the races, suggested that they were a good fit for her.

“Lisa mentioned it and I said, ‘I’d love to be involved,'” she recalls. She said “It would be great for you because of the crossover. You go to the races a lot anyway”. I said, “Give me the date of the photo shoot.”‘

Jessica shared Leonna’s passion for horse racing. Leonna (pictured at Goodwood Racecourse 2011) was once described as ‘the sexiest jockey in the world’

Leonna grew up on a council estate in Audley, a village on the outskirts of Stoke on Trent, in Staffordshire with her single mother Karen, a claims adjuster.

Only at the beginning of the millennium, when she was ten years old, did she discover that her father lived in the same village.

At first she thought she had hit the jackpot. Her father bought her a pony and she thought life would be ‘perfect’.

But she struggled to get along with her stepmother and has now lost contact with her father. Disappointed by her father’s rejection, she decided to make a better life for herself by becoming a successful jockey. She had 32 winners in five seasons.

You can bid on the hats made to raise money for Brain Tumor Research here.