Constance died on 7 April 1898, five days after a surgery conducted by Luigi Maria Bossi. According to "The Guardian", "theories her death have ranged from spinal damage following a fall down stairs to syphilis caught from her husband." Also according to "The Guardian", Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde, "unearthed medical evidence within private family letters, which has enabled a doctor to determine the likely cause of Constance’s demise. The letters reveal symptoms nowadays associated with multiple sclerosis but apparently wrongly diagnosed by her two doctors". Multiple sclerosis was then a little-known condition.