Cook was a close friend and lover of the American actress Charlotte Cushman.[13][14][15] Cook and Cushman sometimes wore matching dresses to symbolise their friendship and "difference from heterosexual women."[12]
On 18 June 1863, Eliza Cook received a Civil List pension of £100 a year.[2] Afterwards she published only a few poems in the Weekly Dispatch, and quickly became what was described as a "confirmed invalid." Despite her loss in popularity, she still collected royalties from her publishers almost up to the end of her life.[8][2] In the 1870 census she is recorded as living at Beech House, 23 Thornton Hill, Wimbledon, Surrey, along with a maid, Mary A. Bowles, her sister Mary Fyall, nephew Alfred Pyall, his wife Harriet, and their daughters Mary and Jane.[16]
Cook's ill health prevented her writing. After many years of suffering on and off from illness she died at her home at Beech House on 23 September 1890.[2][17] Cook's personal estate was £5,957 9s, and her will was proved by her brother Charles Cook and her nephew Alfred, still a resident of Beech House.[18] She is buried at St. Mary's Church, Wimbledon.[19]
