The star of “All My Children” was 51

This TerBlanche

Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images

Esta TerBlanche, the soap opera star best known for his role as Gillian Andrassy, All my childrenhas died. She was 51.

TerBlanche died of natural causes on Thursday, her friend and agent Lisa Rodrigo wrote on Facebook. An autopsy report is still pending. “I am still processing this and am in shock,” Rodrigo wrote. “Esta was a beautiful soul inside and out. I was proud to know and work with her.”

Born in Rustenberg, South Africa in 1973, TerBlanche rose to fame in her home country when she won the title of Miss Teen South Africa in 1991. She moved into television and made her small screen debut in the South African soap opera Egoli: Place of GoldMain role in the M-Net show from 1992 to 1995.

In the late 1990s, she went to the United States and got her biggest role when she played Gillian in the ABC daytime series All my children 1997. In the role of Gillian, TerBlanche played a Hungarian princess who was sent to live with her cousin Dimitri (played by Michael Nader). All my childrenTerBlanche had a popular storyline with actor Cameron Mathison, with his character Ryan Lavery having an enemies-to-lovers arc with Gillian.

Despite their popularity on All my childrenTerBlanche left the show in 2001 after her character was killed off, although Gillian appeared sporadically in later years, once notably as a ghost, and also in the show’s final weeks on ABC. She revealed Soap Opera Overview Earlier this month, she announced that she had left the show at her own request because she wanted to return to South Africa.

Back home, she opened a spa and also appeared in South African documentaries and on television. In recent years, she has spent more time in the US and when asked if she would be interested in working in soap operas again, she said: Soap Opera Overview: “It’s definitely something I’d like to start again.”

She leaves behind her father and her sister.