Sir David Attenborough is set to turn 100 years old next year, having spent decades working in television and receiving numerous accolades. It is set to be a momentous landmark for Sir David, and while the day will no doubt be filled with admiration and gratitude for his decades of work bringing the wonders of nature to television, the milestone will also be tinged with a quiet sadness.
In 1997, Sir David lost his beloved wife Jane after she suffered a brain haemorrhage while he was filming in New Zealand. He rushed home to be by her side after receiving a heartwrenching call from doctors, but sadly, she never regained consciousness, and he has spent the past three decades mourning his irreplaceable presence in his life.
“She never recovered consciousness, but she knew I was back because she clasped my hand,” Sir David once recalled.
“The surgeon very gently and compassionately said that there was no way he could operate because she simply wasn’t strong enough. She died one day short of our 47th wedding anniversary. It was a very happy marriage.”
Sir David and Jane first met as teenagers and tied the knot when he was 24, shortly after completing his national service with the Royal Navy. The couple went on to share nearly five decades together and raised two children, Robert and Susan.
Reflecting on their marriage, Sir David told the Daily Mail: “My wife was a very special woman. She gave up her career as a cook when we got married because she was old-fashioned enough to believe that being a wife and having a family was a career.
He added: “But she was special in the sense that she let me go off around the world. She knew it made me happy; she wanted that for me.”
Although he is approaching his tenth decade of life, Sir David shows no signs of slowing down as he continues to create award-winning documentaries.
Only recently has he broken an impressive record after becoming the oldest person to win a Daytime Emmy. the 99-year-old won the award for the Netflix series Secret Lives of Orangutans.
Attenborough surpassed Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke, who, at 98, set the record last year after winning the guest performer award for his role in Days of Our Lives.
