Skeletal Joely Richardson shows sign of strain in latest red carpet shock

One year on, and while daughter Daisy is on the mend, the stress of that decision appears to have taken its toll on her mother.

With her collarbones and spine protruding, the 42-year-old actress appeared to have lost an alarming amount of weight as she attended the Cartier party celebrating the launch of the firm's new London store.

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Emaciated: Joely's backless dress revealed her protruding bones

Frail: the actress shocked onlookers with her skeletal frame

Wearing a backless black satin gown, Miss Richardson revealed painfully slender arms as she appeared on the red carpet at the Natural History Museum.

'Joely's weight loss was the talk of the night,' said a fellow partygoer. 'While her face and hair looked great, her physique was utterly unrecognisable.

'In heels she is well over 6ft tall, which only goes to emphasise her skinny frame.

'Although she may just have been overdoing things in the gym of late, if she has been watching what she eats, perhaps she has taken the dieting a tad too far.'

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Miss Richardson's new slimline appearance comes less than 12 months after she told producers she was quitting her reported £3million a year role in the hit U.S. TV satire, Nip/Tuck.

The British star revealed her then 15-year-old daughter had a rare circulatory condition requiring a series of operations on her legs.

She flew back to her country home in Surrey to nurse Daisy, her child with ex-husband Tim Bevan, and remained out of the limelight.

However, she recently returned to the show after Daisy was given a clean bill of health.

Speaking about her looks, she said: 'If I were going to have cosmetic surgery I'd have had it done a long time ago. But might I be tempted if I looked in the mirror one day and everything struck me as tired and saggy? Oh, I think so.'

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