"Marianne is being treated for Covid-19 in hospital in London," the statement says.

"She is stable and responding to treatment, we all wish her well and a full and speedy recovery."

Faithfull's friend Penny Arcade told Rolling Stone that 73-year-old singer had been sheltering in place in London when she developed a cold. Out of caution, Faithfull checked herself into a hospital on Monday, where she tested positive for COVID-19 and then developed pneumonia.

An Instagram post from Arcade cited Faithfull's ex-husband John Dunbar as saying, "So far so good. But also that she can barely speak and no visitors."

Faithfull has battled several ailments in recent years, including hepatitis C and breast cancer, and she also struggled with substance abuse, including heroin addiction, in the 1970s and '80s.

Faithfull first emerged in 1964 as a 16-year-old with a hit cover of As Tears Go By, which (perhaps apocryphally) is purported to be the first song that Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards ever wrote together. Under the tutelage of Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, she enjoyed a string of mid-'60s hits but soon became more famous as Jagger's girlfriend; the two were an iconic couple during the Swinging London era, even though Faithfull was married to Dunbar and had a son with him. She fell into drug abuse toward the end of the 1960s and attempted suicide after losing custody of her son.

She and Jagger split in 1970 and she spent much of the decade addicted to heroin, but made a major comeback in 1979 with the excellent, harrowing Broken English, the first in a series of albums for Island Records that featured musicians who also collaborated with Grace Jones.

Australian Associated Press