The 45-year-old woman was visiting Italy with her husband and two children when she fell overboard during a boat accident off the Amalfi coast.
Vaughan became head of Bloomsbury USA, which publishes the Harry Potter books in America, in September 2021.
She was on holiday in Italy with her family – including her husband Mike White and their children Leanna and Mason, 12 and 8 – when she was involved in a boat crash in waters near Naples.
Vaughan and her family had rented out a nine-metre speedboat to explore the gulf when the vessel collided with a 45-metre sailboat named “Tortuga,” which was carrying some 80 people, including German and American tourists who were celebrating a wedding on board.
According to local media, Vaughan fell into the water and was hit by the boat’s propeller, receiving fatal injuries.
While rescuers immediately reached the scene and brought Vaughan to land for medical treatment, she was pronounced dead before she could be taken to a hospital by helicopter.
Her husband, who had also fallen into the water, reported an injury in an arm, according to Italian media, but survived after being taken to a local hospital.
The children were not injured in the accident, though they were reportedly panicked and distressed at seeing their mother in the water.
Prosecutors in Salerno, the area where the incident happened, have opened an investigation into the incident. A drugs test of the skipper who was driving the boat Vaughan hired proved positive for drugs and alcohol, according to Italian media.
