Actress suffers another tragedy just one year after sister’s death

Actress Julia Roberts suffered a devastating loss today as she said goodbye to her mother, Betty Lou Motes.

Betty died in the early hours of this morning after a two year battle with lung cancer.

The 80-year-old had been living in Julia's Los Angeles home in recent months, along with the actress' husband Danny Moder and their three children, ten-year-old twins Finn and Hazel and seven-year-old Henry. 

A cancerous tumour was discovered on Betty's lung during an MRI scan in November 2013 and she also underwent surgery to remove part of her lungs last year.

Betty's passing comes just one year after her daughter Nancy – Julia's half sister – died after a drug overdose last February. Nancy's body was discovered on the bathroom floor of a house in Los Angeles, with suicide suspected as the motivation. 

Julia also tragically lost her father Walter to throat cancer when she was just ten years old. The actress' stepfather, Betty's second husband Michael Motes, is believed to have been an abusive and aggressive husband and father. Julia's mother later called her second marriage "'the biggest mistake I ever made."

Julia's relationship with her younger sister Nancy was said to be strained, but although neither she nor her mother attended a memorial service for Nancy last year, the actress did make it clear that the family had organised their own private funeral.

Speaking shortly after Nancy's death, Julia said it had been a huge blow for the whole family. "There aren't words to explain what any of us have been through in these last 20 days," Julia said last March. "It's hour by hour some days, but you just keep looking ahead."

Our thoughts are with Julia and her family at this hard time.