She told The Observer newspaper: "Joan and I are the best of friends. We're very close. People are always trying to pitch us against each other ... Because we're both successful. But we're very different. Joan is incredibly social and flamboyant and she loves to dress up. I'm much more low key and much less likely to go out for lunches and dinners. She loves being out and about, and I love being home, writing."
Meanwhile, the panel of ITV's Loose Women paid tribute to Collins after she made her final TV appearance on the show on September 10.
Janet Street Porter said: "I thought she was frail but she always puts on such an amazing show, she is a performer, it is hard to believe she has died. I was very sorry to hear it because she was one of the first really extraordinary people that I met in my career in journalism."
Gloria Hunniford also had no idea that Jackie was so ill.
She said: "I never saw anything that spelt illness or you couldn't believe that she would be that close to death and we thought that she was very thin in the face but she was saying LA people are on diets all the time.
"She was always bright, funny, nicely risqué when she wanted to be, she was just the perfect guest."
Jane Moore added: "She never really got the credit that she deserved as an author. It is very, very hard to write best-selling page turners like that and they're very underestimated... She has written five novels since her diagnosis!"
- Bang! Showbiz
