Former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has died.

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MacGowan's wife, journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, announced the star's death Thursday on social media. MacGowan was 65.

"Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese," Clarke wrote on Instagram.

"I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures," she said. "There's no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world."

The Pogues confirmed MacGowan's death in a statement on behalf of Clarke, MacGowan's sister Siobhan and his father Maurice.

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"It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of SHANE MACGOWAN," the post reads. "Shane died peacefully at 3am this morning (30 November, 2023) with his wife Victoria and family by his side. Prayers and the last rites were read which gave comfort to his family."

MacGowan's cause of death has not been shared.

MacGowan was an Irish singer-songwriter who was born in Kent, England and came to fame in the 1970s London punk scene.

MacGowan helped form the Pogues in 1982 and found success with the band in the 1980s and early 1990s, releasing such singles as "Fairytale of New York."


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The singer was fired from the group in 1991 amid personal issues and later formed Shane MacGowan & the Popes, which recorded and toured in the 1990s.