Sir David Attenborough turns 100 today, marking a remarkable life and career. However, amid the celebrations, the broadcaster has recalled the deep heartbreak he suffered following the death of his wife, Jane, in 1997.
Jane died of a brain haemorrhage one day before their 47th wedding anniversary. Attenborough, then 70, rushed back from New Zealand to be by her side. He later said: 'She never recovered consciousness, but she knew I was back because she clasped my hand. I am absolutely distraught. I don't know how I'm going to adapt to life without her.'
In his memoir 'Life on Air', he wrote: 'Her death left a huge hole in his life. The focus of my life, the anchor had gone… now I was lost.' He also told The Radio Times: 'You accommodate things… You deal with things. I'm quite used to solitude in the wilds but, no, an empty house is not what I enjoy.'
The couple met as students aged 18 and married six years later. They had two children, Robert and Susan, now in their 70s. A technician who worked with Attenborough once said of their marriage: 'The way those two greeted one another looked more like a couple of teenagers.'
Reflecting on his career, Attenborough admitted regret over time spent away from his children while filming. He told Louis Theroux in 2017: '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.'
Despite his age, Attenborough has vowed to continue working, ruling out retirement. He said: 'I do dread not working. [But] I would like to think I would be able to detect when I couldn’t find the right words any more.'
