Inside David Cassidy's broken relationship with Katie Cassidy, estranged daughter and Arrow star

While friends and family gathered to be beside David Cassidy as he lay dying at a Florida hospital, his eldest child Katie was not believed to be present.

A successful actress in her own right, Katie Cassidy has starred in television programmes such as Supernatural, Gossip Girl and Arrow, where she has become one of the biggest names in small-screen superheroes as the mighty Black Canary.

Clearly the 30-year-old inherited some of the talent that her father displayed while starring on The Partridge Family, but the two were not close for most of their lives.

Born as the result of a brief relationship between Cassidy and model Sherry Williams, Katie was raised by her mother and stepfather Richard Bendon in Los Angeles.

However, despite limited contact between the two, she followed her biological father's footsteps into the entertainment industry at a young age.

Her initial foray into singing was not well received. In 2002, while just 15, she recorded a cover of her father's hit I Think I Love You, which failed to receive any major airplay. Speaking in his 2007 autobiography, David Cassidy said he was not initially supportive of her music career and claimed her youth and inexperience meant she had not "paid her dues" as a singer.

Thankfully her career as an actress proved to be much more successful. Her breakthrough came when she played a recurring character in the hugely successful show 7<sup>th Heaven. More roles in Gossip Girl and Supernatural confirmed her acting talent. Currently has a major role as superhero Black Canary in the television Arrow.

So far there has been no comment from the actress on her social media profile about her father's death but the pair once shared an emotional bond.

"Because I didn't raise her, I didn't have to parent her," he said to People in 2009. "I'm always here and totally nonjudgmental."

"To be able to go to someone I'm genetically linked to, tell them anything and know that they're not going to judge me — it's unbelievable," Katie said. "It's nice when your dad can be your friend."

However, the two seemed to fall out during David's later years, following his well-documented battles with alcoholism and dementia. "I wasn't her father. I was her biological father but I didn't raise her. She has a completely different life", he lamented.

Cassidy was married to three women during his life. His son Beau was born in 1991 following a marriage to Sue Shifrin in the same year. Beau, now 26, has enjoyed a closer relationship with his father. The singer and performer has been described glowingly by Cassidy:

"He's such a beautiful person – one of the best people you'll ever meet in your life," he said.