Mark Rylance mourns his wife, Claire Van Kampen, who died on his birthday at the age of 71. Details revealed…

Claire van Kampen, a theatrical director and the wife of actor Mark Rylance, died from cancer. She was 71.

Rylance and her daughter Juliet confirmed in a statement to PEOPLE that she died “surrounded by family” in Kassel, Germany, on Saturday, Jan. 18, her 65th birthday.

“Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance, has died this morning, Saturday the 18th of January, at 11:47, in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family,” according to a press release.

“Claire died from cancer on Mark Rylance’s 65th birthday. Her youngest daughter passed away in 2012, leaving her eldest daughter, Juliet Rylance, her two spouses, and innumerable loving friends in England and America.”

Claire’s relatives praised her as “one of the funniest and most inspiring women we’ve ever known.” “We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love,” she said.

BBC News reports that Claire received a cancer diagnosis prior to her death.

She was born in London and attended the Royal College of Music for piano and music theory. Claire began her theater career in 1986, when she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and became the first female musical director, according to the publication.

The next year, Claire joined the Royal National Theatre, where she met Rylance while working as a musical director for a production in which he starred, according to Sky News UK. She eventually became Rylance’s associate creative director at the Globe Theatre, a position she held for 20 years.

Rylance married Claire in 1989, and he became stepfather to her two girls, whom she shares with her late ex-husband, Christopher van Kampen. Nataasha, her youngest daughter, died suddenly at the age of 28 in 2012 from a brain hemorrhage, according to Sky News.

Claire formerly served as a Globe associate and senior research fellow for early modern music at the Globe Theatre, as well as a creative associate at London’s Old Vic Theatre, according to BBC News.

Rylance remarked of his late wife in 2023, according to The Guardian: “Claire profoundly transformed my life… She exposed me to the world of classical and current music, and we fell in love with music.

“Claire came to me with two children, whom I raised alongside her and Chris. However, we never had our own children, so our projects have become our children.” They are fantastic,” he said, describing his wife as “the pillar of my existence.”