Jon Snow, the veteran Channel 4 News presenter who has been battling Alzheimer's for the past four years, is set to share his journey in a new documentary. The 78-year-old journalist has received widespread support after revealing his diagnosis in 2023. Before he offers viewers insight into his experience, here is everything you need to know about his personal life.
Who is Jon Snow's wife?
Jon is married to Dr Precious Lunga, a 51-year-old epidemiologist and businesswoman from Zimbabwe. She left her home country at age 17 to pursue education in the UK. She earned a degree in neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh in 1998 and a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Cambridge in 2003. The couple met in 2001 on the Caribbean island of Mustique and married nine years later in 2010.
Who are Jon Snow's children?
Jon has three children: Freya, Leila, and a baby boy. He fathered his first two children with human rights lawyer Madeleine Colvin, with whom he shared a relationship for 35 years. His third child was born via surrogacy with wife Precious in March 2021.
Leila
Leila is Jon's eldest child at age 42. She previously operated a tea room called High Tea of Highgate, which closed in March 2018. The tea room was popular and even praised by Snow himself, who tweeted in 2015: "Sunny coffee at my daughter Leila's cafe High Tea in London's Highgate... not bad at all in fact delightful."
Freya
Freya is Jon's youngest daughter and second child with Colvin, aged 38. She is a lawyer specialising in social issues and has a keen interest in representing protest-related cases. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Snow discussed his two eldest children, saying: "I have an incredibly close relationship with them. I don't dare to give any parenting advice because I don't pretend to be an expert myself. However, I do worry that kids these days are too glued to their electronic devices and I worry about the negative issues that come from that, such as cyberbullying, peer pressure and sexting. We need to go back to basics, reading to children at night, because it's an invaluable bonding experience and gives them a thirst for learning."
Baby boy
Jon's youngest child is a baby boy, born through surrogacy in March 2021. Speaking after the birth, Snow said: "In our desire to seal our now 11 years of marriage with a baby, my wife suffered numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages. Consequently, we will always be deeply grateful to our surrogate, who carried our embryo to term. Amid these challenging times, we feel doubly blessed to be able to celebrate our good fortune."
Jon Snow: A Last Big Story will air on Channel 4 on Saturday 20 June at 8pm.
