Dr. Rachel Owen, former longtime partner of Radiohead's Thom Yorke dead at 48

OXFORD, England, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Dr. Rachel Owen, the former longtime partner of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has died at the age of 48.

Owen was an artist and Italian lecturer at Oxford where she continued to teach until recently. Her artwork involved photography and printmaking with scholarly work focusing on Italian medieval literature.

Owen's death was confirmed by an obituary posted by Pembroke College of Oxford who detailed her work at the school and noted how her last artistic production "was a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante's first book of the Divine Comedy."

Yorke and Owen had remained together for 23 years until August of 2015 when the musician publicly announced the end of their relationship.

"Rachel and I have separated," Yorke said at the time. "After 23 highly creative and happy years, for various reasons we have gone our separate ways. It's perfectly amicable and has been common knowledge for some time."

As Rolling Stone notes, many Radiohead fans have interpreted the band's latest album A Moon Shaped Pool as being about the end of Thom and Owen's relationship with romance being a constant theme throughout the release.

Owen is survived by her son Noah, 15, and daughter Agnes, 12.