Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 86. The BBC presenter, who hosted That’s Life! for over two decades, spent her final years campaigning for the assisted dying bill after receiving a terminal diagnosis.
She confirmed she had stage four lung cancer in January 2023, and in November of that year announced she had signed up to Dignitas, a Swiss non-profit organisation that allows physician-assisted euthanasia.
Appeal to MPs
By 2024, Esther had issued an appeal to MPs, urging them to support Kim Leadbeater’s bill on Choice at the End of Life. In a letter, she wrote: “This is such a vital life and death issue, one that we the public care desperately about, so it is only right that as many MPs as possible listen to the arguments for and against, and make up your own minds, according to your own conscience, your personal thoughts and feelings.”
She added: “This bill will never apply to me as I have stage four lung cancer, and my time is running out. But I am fortunate to have the choice of an assisted death in Dignitas in Switzerland.” Prior to her passing, she had worked closely with the Express, supporting the bill through the Give Us Our Last Rights campaign.
Final Plea and Rejection
After the bill was progressed to the House of Lords in 2025 and given its Second Reading, MP Lauren Edwards reintroduced it in June 2026. With the bill set to be voted upon on September 11, Esther and her daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, continued to champion the cause.
Speaking out in July, Esther pleaded with PM Andy Burnham, telling the Express: “Tragically, even the best palliative care in the world cannot guarantee the pain-free, dignified death we all hope for. So please, Prime Minister, allow the public and the MPs the dignity of choice they have asked for, and at long last pass the new law so that in future we, at the most vulnerable time in our lives, can ask for assistance not to shorten our life, but to shorten our death.”
After the bill was rejected this month, Esther’s daughter, Rebecca, was seen outside Parliament. As she held her phone up so the TV star could publicly respond to the news, Esther told crowds: “I’m so sad that people in this country won’t have the choice so many terminally ill adults have in other countries, of shortening their own deaths by asking for help. I am sure a change in the law will come. I am deeply sad that it won’t come soon enough for many of the people who need it. It’s a tragic day.”
Family Reaction
Agreeing with her mother, Rebecca said, “I am devastated. I think this is a travesty. Mum's completely right that it is a tragic day. I think it's a demolition of democracy. There was a democratic process that was fair, that was voted on, and those few peers were smiling and happy in that building then. They looked like the cat that got the cream because they knew that through cheating, lying and filibustering, they won today. And people like my mum lost today, in such a huge way. This was never going to come in time for my family, but it was going to come in time for other people.”
