Geneviève Waïte, an actress and mother of two children with Mamas & the Papas musician John Phillips, has died. She was 71.
“Our beautiful Mother, Geneviève Waïte Phillips, passed away in her sleep,” said the statement. “She was a beautiful [a] soul, and born from another planet. Her ideas, her songs, her voice, and her heartbeat to a beautiful African rhythm no one else had and I am so thankful she was able to share it. She was a light, a fairy, and a gift of a creature. The lyrics she wrote on her album were timeless and smart. Her mind was poetry and wit, her sense of humor was quick and dry. She was like a child in a way, who was too smart for her own good.”
Waite was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and began her career in modeling.
Waïte and Phillips married in January 1972. They had two children together, Bijou and son Tamerlane Phillips.