Marianne Faithfull Hospitalized After Testing Positive for Coronavirus

Marianne Faithfull is currently in a London hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus, Rolling Stone has confirmed.

“Marianne Faithfull’s manager Francois Ravard has confirmed that Marianne is being treated for COVID-19 in hospital in London. She is stable and responding to treatment. We all wish her well and a full and speedy recovery,” the singer’s reps said in a statement Saturday.

Faithfull’s longtime friend Penny Arcade told Rolling Stone that the singer was sheltering in place following the United Kingdom’s order to do so when she developed a cold. Out of caution, Faithfull checked herself into the hospital on Monday, where she tested positive for COVID-19. She remains hospitalized after developing pneumonia, Arcade said.

The smoky-voiced chanteuse has a long history of health issues, including hepatitis C – a condition she’s battled for decades – and a brief bout with breast cancer in 2016. Faithfull has also been open about her struggles with drug abuse and anorexia.

Faithfull, who last released her late-career masterwork Negative Capacity in 2018, is the latest musician to test positive for the novel coronavirus, a global pandemic that has contributed toward the deaths of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, country singer Joe Diffie and jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis Jr. Beloved singer John Prine is also hospitalized with COVID-19.

Additional reporting by Jason Newman