John Lydon's Twitter account shared the sad news on Thursday that the star's wife Nora Foster has died at the age of 80.
Nora, a former music promoter, had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years of her life, with Sex Pistols frontman John, 67, acting as her carer.
Sharing a picture of the spouses hugging on his official Twitter account, John's team wrote: "1/2 Rest in Peace Nora Forster. It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Nora Forster - John Lydon's wife of nearly 5 decades - has passed away. Nora had been living with Alzheimer’s for several years. In which time John had become her full time carer.
"2/2 Please respect John's grief and allow him space. Rest in Peace Nora. Heart felt condolences to John from Rambo and all at PiL Official.
"Photo @ Andy Cantillon / JRJL Productions 2010."
PiL - Public Image Ltd - is the band John formed after his time in the Sex Pistols in 1978 and John Rambo Stevens is the punk star's manager.
John and Nora, a German publishing heiress, wed in 1979, with the singer-songwriter becoming stepfather to Nora's daughter, vocalist Ari Up. Ari tragically died in 2010 of breast cancer at the age of 48.
John has been open about their lives since his late-wife's Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and most recently he and his PiL bandmates submitted a love song dedicated to Nora to compete to represent Ireland in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. However the track, entitled Hawaii, failed in its bid.
