According to gallery owner Rui Brito, the artist "died peacefully at home, with her children".

Paula Rego studied in the 1960s at the Slade School of Art, in London, where she settled permanently from the 1970s onwards, but with regular visits to Portugal, where, in 2009, a museum was opened that houses part of her work, the Casa das Histórias, in Cascais.

Born on January 26, 1935, in Lisbon, she was awarded, among others, the Turner Prize in 1989, and the Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Grand Prix in 2013, in addition to having been distinguished with the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant'Iago da Espada in 2004. In 2010, she received from Queen Elizabeth II the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to the arts.

In 2019, she received the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Government of Portugal.