The director of the music video for the hit Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke song Blurred Lines has died at the age of 63.
Diane Martel, who also worked with stars such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus, died following a breast cancer diagnosis.
Her family said she died surrounded by her loved ones at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York on Thursday.
‘Diane passed away peacefully at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital – surrounded by friends and family – after a long battle with breast cancer,’ her family said in a statement.
‘She is survived by her Aunt, Gail Merrifield Papp (wife of Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theatre), her three beloved, loyal cats (Poki, PopPop, PomPom) and many loving lifetime friends,’ the statement to Rolling Stone continued.
A born and bred New Yorker, Martel earned a trailblazing reputation in the music industry, known for her striking visuals and provocative videos.
![11933461 Emily Ratajkowski's Blurred Lines co-star Elle Evans recalls moment model was groped by Robin Thicke - as she opens up about her appearance in controversial video: 'I used my looks to make money, that was the only option I had' . The unrated video, which shows Evans snuggling a baby goat and riding a plush dog in nothing but a thong, was originally intended to satirize a red-blooded Terry Richardson-esque shoot. ?I wanted to deal with the misogynist, funny lyrics in a way where the girls were going to overpower the men,? Martel told Grantland at the time. ?It also forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators... I don?t think the video is sexist.? In a since-deleted VH1 interview, Thicke put it this way: "We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you're not supposed to do ? bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe ? I just wanted to break every rule of things you?re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are." The idea made sense to Evans, who says director Diane Martel told the models to dial down the sex appeal. "I remember Diane shouting, like, 'That's too sexy. Don't be too sexy. This is not the club, you know. This is not a lap dance.' There's parts where I'm sitting on the stool and T.I. is brushing my hair. [Diane] wanted me just kind of chilling, just kind of a little bit of a shimmy shake," she says. "I felt like I was in the power position, even among all these superstar recording artists. It was a really great feeling." (Martel declined Bustle's request for an interview.)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SEI_150765062-89a9.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The most discussed and controversial video in her catalogue is 2013’s Blurred Lines video, which has amassed over 900million views on YouTube.
Featuring a near-naked line-up of Emily Ratajkowski, Elle Evans, and Jessi M’Bengue, next to the fully-clothed male singers Thicke, Williams and TI, the raunchy music video sparked a pre-#MeToo debate.
Of the video, Martel US website Grantland: ‘It forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators.
‘I directed the girls to look into the camera. This is very intentional and they do it most of the time; they are in the power position. I don’t think the video is sexist. The lyrics are ridiculous, the guys are silly as f***.’
The song itself spent 12 consecutive weeks at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Why was the Blurred Lines video controversial?
The lyrics of the Blurred Lines song focus on a woman in a nightclub who may or not be interested in R&B singer Thicke Thicke, prompting the Daily Beast to describe it as ‘rapey’ shortly after its release.
When the video was later unveiled, it became a lightning rod for criticism. The video sees the three men surrounded by scantily clad or topless models.
The backlash to the song was then intense: it was banned from being played on several UK university campuses, YouTube removed the explicit version of the video, and The Guardian dubbed it ‘the most controversial song of the decade’.
The debate over the song’s attitude to consent prompted Emily Ratajkowski to say: ‘I’m glad that people are criticising pop lyrics, because I think that’s an important thing to do.’
While Pharrell defended it at the time, he went on to say he was embarrassed by it in later years. ‘I realised that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behaviour or the way I think about things,’ he told GQ. ‘It just matters how it affects women.’
![11933461 Emily Ratajkowski's Blurred Lines co-star Elle Evans recalls moment model was groped by Robin Thicke - as she opens up about her appearance in controversial video: 'I used my looks to make money, that was the only option I had' . The unrated video, which shows Evans snuggling a baby goat and riding a plush dog in nothing but a thong, was originally intended to satirize a red-blooded Terry Richardson-esque shoot. ?I wanted to deal with the misogynist, funny lyrics in a way where the girls were going to overpower the men,? Martel told Grantland at the time. ?It also forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators... I don?t think the video is sexist.? In a since-deleted VH1 interview, Thicke put it this way: "We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you're not supposed to do ? bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe ? I just wanted to break every rule of things you?re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are." The idea made sense to Evans, who says director Diane Martel told the models to dial down the sex appeal. "I remember Diane shouting, like, 'That's too sexy. Don't be too sexy. This is not the club, you know. This is not a lap dance.' There's parts where I'm sitting on the stool and T.I. is brushing my hair. [Diane] wanted me just kind of chilling, just kind of a little bit of a shimmy shake," she says. "I felt like I was in the power position, even among all these superstar recording artists. It was a really great feeling." (Martel declined Bustle's request for an interview.)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SEI_150764961-7537.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![11933461 Emily Ratajkowski's Blurred Lines co-star Elle Evans recalls moment model was groped by Robin Thicke - as she opens up about her appearance in controversial video: 'I used my looks to make money, that was the only option I had' . The unrated video, which shows Evans snuggling a baby goat and riding a plush dog in nothing but a thong, was originally intended to satirize a red-blooded Terry Richardson-esque shoot. ?I wanted to deal with the misogynist, funny lyrics in a way where the girls were going to overpower the men,? Martel told Grantland at the time. ?It also forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators... I don?t think the video is sexist.? In a since-deleted VH1 interview, Thicke put it this way: "We pretty much wanted to take all the taboos of what you're not supposed to do ? bestiality, you know, injecting a girl in her bum with a five-foot syringe ? I just wanted to break every rule of things you?re not supposed to do and make people realize how silly some of these rules are." The idea made sense to Evans, who says director Diane Martel told the models to dial down the sex appeal. "I remember Diane shouting, like, 'That's too sexy. Don't be too sexy. This is not the club, you know. This is not a lap dance.' There's parts where I'm sitting on the stool and T.I. is brushing my hair. [Diane] wanted me just kind of chilling, just kind of a little bit of a shimmy shake," she says. "I felt like I was in the power position, even among all these superstar recording artists. It was a really great feeling." (Martel declined Bustle's request for an interview.)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SEI_150765055-1bd6.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Martel was also behind Miley Cyrus’s We Can’t Stop music video, which saw the former teen star shed her Disney image in favour of a blonde pixie cut and repeated twerking at a house party.
The two music videos from Martel then collided at the infamous 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, whenThicke and Cyrus performed their songs as a medley and made headlines for a suggestively used foam finger and yet more twerking.
Martel remained unfazed by the uproar the videos received, telling Rolling Stone that year: ‘My s*** is on point right now.
‘I do have to admit I like being provocative. That’s punk, that’s rock & roll, that’s hip-hop. It’s passionate. We’re not doing pharmaceutical ads.’
Martel was nominated for Best Direction at the VMAs once in 2005, sharing the nomination with Francis Lawrence for Jennifer Lopez’s Get Right music video.
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