Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, the romantic hero of Bridget Jones's Diary. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Sportsphoto LtdBridget Jones lives on, counting calories, alcohol units and hair nits but discounting years – 51 but answering to 35 – but this is no consolation to legions of fans who have learned some devastating news: Mr Darcy is dead.
Whether he was smothered by a Christmas sweater or died of pneumonia from a wet shirt remains to be revealed when Mad About the Boy is published next month, but the shocking news has been broken in extracts in the Sunday Times magazine.
In the final pages of her last dispatch, more than 10 years ago, the definitive chick-lit romantic hero – dark, handsome, rich, funny, clever, devoted – proposed to Bridget. Alas, while the marriage did produce little Mabel and the nit-infested Billy, evidently the couple did not live happily ever after.
In extracts from the new book, the third volume of Bridget Jones's Diary, the international best sellers by Helen Fielding that became hit movies starring Renée Zellwegger and Colin Firth, it is tragically clear that Mr Darcy is no more. Jones is now tracking texts from and "minutes spent obsessing" over her 29-year-old toyboy, Roxter.
Fielding's publisher, Jonathan Cape, said the new book would "give a voice to the more mature social media-obsessed concerns of the women who grew up with Bridget", but fans were aghast.
"What?? No!" said a grieving Holly Adderley, one of many – including the novelist and former Tory MP Louise Mensch – who took to Twitter in shock. Anne Robinson added: "Mark Darcy is dead. Bridget Jones is a widow!! This is all too much for a lazy Sunday morning."
Another tweet said: "I really hope this isn't true", but from the extracts it does seem to be all too true.
Jones laments: "Has it really been five years? Oh Mark, Mark. What am I doing? Why did I start all this? Why didn't I just stay as I was? Sad, lonely, workless, sexless but at least a mother, a widow, and faithful to their father."
Remember Bridget Jones's diary entries including this one? "I hate Christmas. Everything is designed for families, romance, warmth." That's from the ground-breaking novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding published in 1996. How could Fielding have known that Twitter would be invented and that Bridget's musings are perfect tweets? Fielding didn't know, of course, but she's tweeting now and loving it. "I'm a bit obsessed. I knew if I got on Twitter I would not be able to stop, and that's what's happened," she writes in an email sent to USA TODAY. Fans can find Fielding on Twitter (@bridgetjoneshf), where she voices Bridget in all her neurotic glory, but also Mark Darcy (@markdarcylegal) and Daniel Cleaver (@danielcleaver). There's no publication date set, but Fielding is working on a third novel in the Bridget Jones series. The second, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was published in 1999. Movies based on the two Bridget books, starring Renee Zellweger, were released in 2001 and 2004. "Bridget is just turning 40," writes Fielding of the third book, "and she's struggling with baby issues - that sort of baby panic. Really I guess the theme of the book is expectation: that life never turns out quite the way you expect." Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) reached No. 2 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1998) peaked at No. 16.