Broadcaster and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen has died aged 86. Her family confirmed the news in a statement, remembering her as "the most wonderful mother" and a "cherished grandmother" with "endless capacity for joy".
Career and Charities
Dame Esther hosted the BBC consumer affairs show That's Life! for 21 years, from 1973 to 1994. The programme blended consumer reports with satire and became one of the most popular shows on British television. It expanded the traditional role of consumer programmes to investigate life-and-death issues, including a boarding school employing paedophiles and a lack of organ donors.
Her work on the show led her to found Childline in 1986, a counselling service for young people. The idea came after a temporary helpline for viewers affected by a programme about a toddler who had starved to death was overwhelmed with callers, many of them children suffering sexual abuse who had never disclosed it before. In 2012, she launched The Silver Line to tackle loneliness among older people.
Campaign for Assisted Dying
In later life, Dame Esther became a prominent advocate for assisted dying after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023. She openly discussed plans to "buzz off to Zurich" for an assisted death at Dignitas and criticised the "messy and cruel" law in England and Wales that criminalises loved ones who try to help.
In September 2026, ahead of a parliamentary vote that ultimately defeated efforts to legalise assisted dying, she said it was now too late for her to travel, as she had become "too physically fragile to make the journey". She spoke of her anguish at loved ones seeing her "suffering pain or indignity" and called the defeat of the Bill a "tragic day".
Family's Tribute
In their statement, her family said: "Our adored mother Dame Esther Rantzen died today. Her legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities Childline and the Silverline, and through those of us who were lucky enough to love and be loved by her. We are grateful she is finally at rest with her beloved husband, Desmond Wilcox, but we will miss her immeasurably. She was our sunshine."
They added: "We will always remember her endless capacity for joy, her ability to comfort every heartache, her beautiful way with words and her expert guidance in all things. She was the most wonderful mother to us three children and a cherished grandmother to her five treasured grandchildren. We have been so lucky for so long, no matter how much time we had with Mum it could be never be enough, but we are so grateful for our lives together."
The family also thanked everyone who wrote to her, shared their stories, and worked alongside her, noting: "Mum's work with charities and campaigning, particularly for children, older people, and the terminally ill, meant the world to her." They asked for privacy and time to grieve.
