Daisy Donovan family

She is half-sister to Big Audio Dynamite keyboard player Dan Donovan (therefore former sister-in-law of Patsy Kensit) Her mother, Diana Donovan, is Chair of the English National Ballet School. Her father was Terence Donovan.

Terence Donovan (September 14, 1936 - November 22, 1996), was a celebrated photographer and film director, perhaps best remembered for his fashion photography of the 1960s, or for the music video to Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love".

He was born in Stepney in the East End of London, and took his first photo at the age of 15. The bomb-damaged industrial landscape of his home town became the backdrop of much of his fashion photography, and he set the trend for positioning fashion models in stark and gritty urban environments. Flats and gasometers were popular settings, and he often had the models adopt adventurous poses. He wedged one model up the side of a building, and photographed another as she posed dangling from a parachute.

Along with David Bailey, he captured, and in many ways helped create the Swinging London of the 1960s: a culture of high fashion and celebrity chic. Both photographers socialised with actors, musicians and royalty, and found themselves elevated to celebrity status. Together, they were the first real celebrity photographers.

Donovan shot for various fashion magazines, including Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, as well as directing some 3000 commercials, and a 1973 movie Yellow Dog. He also made documentaries and music videos, and painted.

Donovan committed suicide after suffering depression as a result of steroids he'd been taking to treat a skin condition.

Donovan was married twice, and is the father of television presenter Daisy Donovan and musician Dan Donovan (Big Audio Dynamite).

Her wedding is in Morocco and will be tiny. “I didn’t want to do Hello! and be forced to have a random famous cousin brought into every shot and made to kneel at the front.” At moments like this, when enjoying herself, Donovan’s face begins to animate and gurn, turning her into an attractive Les Dawson. “All my friends have done the big-wedding thing, but if you only invite the people you really love, and who really love you, then you have to have a nice time, even if you’re just plucking a guitar.”

Her soon-to-be husband is the Ali G producer, Dan Mazer, but she won’t be changing her name. “I tried using the name Daisy Mazer on Ocado, and I thought it made me sound like the world’s worst three-year-old.”

Donovan also refuses to worry about her total lack of wifely skills. Can she cook? “No. I can heat up soup. Just about. I once tried to make fairy cakes, like Nigella Lawson, and they had beige icing and were just disgusting. Domestic goddesses have infiltrated everybody’s lives and raised the bar way too high. Now, you have to be really good at your job, thin, have great hair and be really clever. And you have to be really good at looking after your children, feeding them well, dressing them trendily ... And I just think, f***ing hell, how do people do it? So the answer is that I shan’t. I get really upset seeing my friends who are mums crying because they feel like they’re not good enough. Clever, confident, kind young women all going, ‘I’m ruining my child’s life.’”

What will happen when you have kids? “I would love children some day, but for now, I’m happy to concentrate on work and take the risk of letting life just happen. My dad always said, ‘Don’t worry what people think, because you can’t change it.’”

Daisy Donovan family

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