The old Catalan townhouse felt like a sanctuary – just what reality TV personality Jake Hall craved. To reach it, he had climbed a low hill from the main square, passing watchful old men sitting outside a cafe. All was quiet in the narrow street outside his temporary new home save for the high-pitched call of swallows darting above.
Around him, the small town of Santa Margalida, set in bucolic Balearic countryside dotted with almond trees, was sleepy to the point of dozing off. Locals called it the ‘Majorca of our grandparents’. Nobody would bother him here.
Certainly Santa Margalida is a world away from brash Magaluf, 40 miles south, which draws a million party-loving British holidaymakers every year. And it must have felt further still from the glitz and bling of the ‘structured reality’ TV show The Only Way is Essex (Towie) where Hall found a kind of fame a decade earlier.
As soon as he stepped through the townhouse’s sky-blue louvered door that afternoon, May 5, he began to feel relief. This at least is what he told an old friend who happened to call just as Hall was putting his case down and surveying the Airbnb where he planned to immerse himself in his art over the next fortnight, possibly longer. Hall spoke excitedly of its high ceilings, ancient stone walls and inner courtyard where, he said, farm animals were kept in the old days before it was turned into a patio area with a dining table and small swimming pool.
‘He kept saying how pleased he was to have found somewhere truly authentic,’ the friend told the Daily Mail last week. ‘He kept using the word authentic. He wanted peace, somewhere he could think and work. He needed to escape, to get away from what he called “the distractions”.’
Hall didn’t expand because the signal was poor and they got cut off but the friend assumed he meant ‘the stuff that follows him around’.
In other words, he added, the ‘drink, drugs and the shallow hangers on’. Hall was shadowed by all three and had many times declared himself sick of them.
In May, former Towie star Jake Hall travelled to Santa Margalida, Majorca, which he called his ‘healing island’
Little more than 12 hours after arriving, Hall was dead – having crashed through a glass-paned wooden door opening on to the patio
And he had long tired of Towie which he blamed in part for his demons. Whenever they crowded in on him, he made for Majorca. He called it his ‘healing island’.
Yet little more than 12 hours after he spoke to his friend, the 35-year-old former model and fashion designer-turned artist was dead.
Somehow, he had managed to crash through the glass-paned wooden door opening on to the patio. Shards protruded from his neck and chest and he was lifeless when paramedics arrived. That much is clear.
Quite how this happened remains less so. Next day the Spanish Civil Guard said his death appeared ‘accidental’ before adding: ‘There is nothing pointing to it being the result of a crime at this stage.’ This conclusion was reached after taking statements from half a dozen well-dressed men and women in their 20s who are thought to live in Majorca.
Despite what he said about needing solitude, Hall had apparently spent the evening in their company before inviting them back to the two-bedroom house, Lluna Blava – Catalan for ‘blue moon’ – to continue the party, which, according to one account, was fuelled by drugs and drink.
‘His death left me numb with shock,’ his friend told me. ‘But to go in this fashion after the conversation we had is mystifying. I just don’t get it. He’s not exactly immune to temptation – far from it – but even so, it just doesn’t figure.’
So where does the investigation now stand, nearly eight weeks on? The Civil Guard did not respond to questions from this newspaper last week.
Some in Hall’s social circle told the Daily Mail of a troubling ‘wall of silence’ that now seems to surround the case. They note, for instance, that it is surprising on an island where little remains a mystery for long that the identities of Hall’s guests are not known, adding it is also odd that a clear account of what exactly led to the accident – and of the incident itself – has yet to materialise publicly.
Certainly, given the size and layout of the tiny open-plan house, it seems inconceivable nobody witnessed Hall’s violent end. The Mail was told last week that some guests were outside at the time, with others sitting at the kitchen table (close to the door) covered with a lace cloth. In short, they couldn’t have missed it.
‘So far the accounts have been fragmentary at best. Why can’t someone come forward and give us some clarity?’ asks another friend. ‘How exactly did this supposed accident happen? It’s not unusual to walk into floor-to-ceiling glass doors or windows but a wooden door with glass panes? Seems weird. If not foul play, could it have been some kind of horseplay that caused this?’
In the absence of a cogent explanation, it is perhaps inevitable that the information vacuum has been filled with unfounded theories.
One beginning to circulate is that the authorities are protecting one guest because she is the daughter of a rich and powerful Spaniard. Fanciful, maybe. What we learned from Hall’s inquest, which opened last month at East London coroner’s court, did little to dispel the speculation, however. Two post mortem examinations, one in Majorca the other in the UK following the repatriation of his body, proved inconclusive. No cause of death was found.
Coroner Nadia Persaud asked Spanish authorities to provide the court with copies of the toxicology report, police reports and witness statements. Whether they have done so yet is not known.
He had spent much of his childhood in Majorca, where his parents owned a hotel, and had a wide circle of friends on the island
Pictured filming Towie with co-star James Argent in 2016. Hall had long tired of the reality TV show, which he blamed in part for his demons
Hall spent much of his childhood in Majorca – his parents owned a hotel in upmarket Puerto Portals – and he had a wide circle of friends here. His immediate family have not addressed his death publicly, but perhaps suggesting they too are seeking a fuller explanation, the coroner granted them ‘interested person’ status. This will give them the opportunity to examine evidence and question witnesses.
To do so, they will have to wait six months until the next hearing. Even if Hall’s party guests are reluctant to give evidence, they could be summonsed, even if they live overseas. ‘You’d expect anyone with a shred of decency to make themselves available, to tell Jake’s family – if they haven’t already done so – everything they know and answer all questions,’ said another in Hall’s set, a lawyer.
‘However painful it might be, as a parent, you’d want the complete picture, to know everything within reason.’ A few days after he died his father Greg, mother Jacqueline and brother Sonny flew to Majorca and visited a sculpture Jake had unveiled a month ago.
Afterwards his father wrote on Facebook, addressing those they met: ‘Thank you so, so much for all your love.’
Thus far, the only person who has publicly admitted being in the house at the time of his death is an unnamed British model, though her account is notable for its ambiguity and what it omits.
Chiefly, how Hall came to collide with the door. Frustratingly for his parents, one imagines, she stirs the pot of intrigue by vaguely mentioning that after ‘a crazy night’ – why it was crazy she doesn’t say – they returned to his house where ‘there was quite a lot of tension in the air’ and ‘Jake seemed to be in an argumentative mood’.
Taken at face value, her account suggests his death was less clear-cut than the Civil Guard would have us believe. Maybe the model was hinting that something darker may have occurred?
Curiously, she jumps from Hall being combative to the police arriving without addressing what happened in between.
It is worth noting her account chimes with a report from hours earlier quoting a source claiming police were told Hall ‘became agitated, possibly from alcohol and other substances he may have consumed’. A source told me last week this description was not one that investigators ‘recognised’,
And it is not supported by a 70-year-old bricklayer, Rafael, who lives opposite. He told the Daily Mail he did ‘not notice any bottles of alcohol or drugs scattered around the property’ when he responded to a call to help a minute or so after the accident.
The young people, who were well dressed, seemed nervous and upset about their friend, but they did not look as though they were high on drugs, he said.
In the absence of anything tangible, his loved ones have doubtless pored over a video Hall posted to Instagram a few hours before he died for clues to his state of mind.
It features clips of himself and his daughter – eight-year-old River, born to ex-partner Misse Beqiri – alongside the caption: ‘Life is b******s sometimes but I’m gonna try to remember the good things’. The video was accompanied by the track Beast of Burden by The Rolling Stones.
By any reckoning it seems freighted with poignancy. But did it suggest something more?
Interviewed for a podcast last week, Ms Beqiri was asked what the message meant to her. She expresses regret that Hall didn’t call her that night, suggesting perhaps his death could have been prevented though elsewhere she describes it as an accident because he would ‘never have left River’.
By coincidence, Ms Beqiri was in Majorca at the time her former partner died. Neither knew the other was there.
She told the interviewer: ‘I wish he’d called me [to say] “I need you, come help me”. Asked what she took from Hall’s message to ‘remember the good things’ she replied: ‘I think Jake just wanted to be remembered for everything good that he has done and to be remembered… as an amazing father… and how much he loved people and how much he connected people.’ Then she alludes to his mental health struggles, revealing ‘he worked so hard to fight this voice that was always talking over him’ before adding: ‘All I can think about is that he’s at peace now… he’s resting.’
To add to his strife, Hall was in financial trouble. In March 2023, his fashion label Prévu – which had been worn by everyone from rapper Stormzy to supermodel Bella Hadid – went into administration, having been purchased by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Hall and his ex-partner Misse Beqiri who, by chance, was in Majorca when he died. Neither knew the other was there
Hall was in financial trouble. In March 2023, his fashion label Prévu went into administration. His second clothing line ‘By Jake Hall’ also went into liquidation last year
He then set up a second clothing line ‘By Jake Hall’ which went into liquidation last year. Accounts for the holding company ‘Prevu London’ show the firm went bust with £1.49million debts including more than £180,000 owed to HMRC.
What hurt more, the Mail has been told, is that Hall was recently scammed out of £100,000 by a New York art dealer. Art was where he had begun to find succour.
He had started renting a workshop on Majorca to work on his craft, painting a string of large abstract canvasses.
Speaking of his work a few months before he died, he said: ‘The only thing that got me out of deep, deep pain was drawing… and if I draw some deep things that hurt a lot and turn them into beautiful colours and nice shapes, that was a release for me.’
When he died he was collaborating with an old schoolfriend, Stella Lavinia Overmann, on a string of artistic retreats called ‘Casa 137’, something he was sadly unable to see to fruition.
Stella says: ‘It is heartbreaking Jake will not get to see where this journey was going. But what he leaves behind is so much bigger than a project. He leaves behind his creativity, vision, art, ideas, kindness and the inspiration he gave to so many around him.’
She recalls their first meeting ‘when we were seven, sitting in the same classroom here in Majorca. Even back then, he was different…in the best way possible.
‘He saw the world in his unique way. I remember the little drawings and sketches covering the corners of his school papers. He was endlessly creative, a little cheeky, full of charm, laughter. He always had the kind of energy that made people gravitate to him.’
But as the friend who spoke to him as he moved into Lluna Blava that afternoon says: ‘They weren’t always the right type of people. What a terrible irony this should happen in a humble little cottage that briefly gave him hope.’
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