Sir David Attenborough has expressed his fear of becoming an 'appalling encumbrance' on his children in his old age. The 91-year-old broadcaster, known for his nature documentaries, shared his concerns in an interview with Stylist magazine.
When asked if he is scared of dying, Attenborough replied: 'I'm scared of becoming an appalling encumbrance on my children.' He also revealed that he would like to know 'whether there is an afterlife' before he dies.
Attenborough was married to his wife Elizabeth for 47 years before she died of a brain haemorrhage in 1997. He was in New Zealand filming 'The Life of Birds' when she fell into a coma, but he returned in time to be with her before she passed away.
Reflecting on his career, Attenborough admitted to regrets about the time he spent away from his children when they were young. In a recent interview with Louis Theroux for Radio Times, he said: 'If I do have regrets, it is that when my children were the same age as your children, I was away for three months at a time. If you have a child of six or eight and you miss three months of his or her life, it's irreplaceable; you miss something.'
Attenborough's daughter Susan is a primary school teacher, and his son Robert is a senior lecturer in biological anthropology at the Australian National University. Both are in their 50s. The broadcaster has also faced personal tragedies in recent years, including the deaths of his brother Richard Attenborough in 2014, his brother John in 2012, and his niece Jane Holland and her daughter Lucy in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
