My ears caught wind of this a few days back, but I didn't want to believe it was true at the time. Now that the author of Bridget Jones has revealed the fate of one of our most important (and drooled over) characters in her third installment, I'm just not sure I can go on.

If you'd rather wait 'til the movie (which may or may not) hit the cinema screen, get off this page right this minute; spoilers will ensue.

In Mad About The Boy, she's killing off Mr Darcy. What I'm curious to unearth here, is exactly what kind of ganja she's been smoking. Colin Firth's character. Are you serious? Mr. Darcy. The one who ventured out in the snow to buy her a new diary, who endured the turkey curry buffet against his will and ditched his hideous Christmas jumpers when Bridget waltzed into his life? Yes, him.

She's forcing Bridget back to her spinster days, and I discovered elsewhere that she's decided to keep Daniel Cleaver around for good measure. He's the Godfather of her and Darcy's son, (or so it has been rumoured) and is said to try once more to rekindle his relationship with Bridget whilst enjoying a spot of babysitting. Creep!

In an interview with Time Magazine, she said: "I did want to tell Colin in person but we were trying to have lunch, and I couldn't really tell him why I was trying to meet him, and he was in a different place.. So I ended up telling him he died on the phone. I had to ask him if he had someone with him and if he was sitting down. It was like someone actually had died. We had to process it. And I was almost saying, 'I'm so sorry for your loss'."

Helen Fielding added: "His presence is very much there in the book and in the child... As I told [Colin] his memory will live on and he will rise from the dead rather like Jesus".

We'll have to wait and see if Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant do indeed return for the third installment.