Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 85. The former That’s Life! presenter and Childline founder has been open about the end of her life and has been campaigning for the law on assisted dying to change
TV presenter Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 86. The journalist and TV presenter, known for shows such as That’s Life!, in recent years became a prominent voice in the attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
The journalist and television presenter was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2023. In May of the same year, she announced her condition had reached stage four and she was taking a new form of medication to help.
Before her death, Esther had revealed that she had joined assisted dying clinic Dignitas in Switzerland after being told her cancer had spread. Esther said that she was undergoing a “miracle” treatment but was considering travelling to Zurich where assisted dying is legal if it didn’t work.
In a 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. 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.
“Mum’s work with charities and campaigning, particularly for children, older people, and the terminally ill, meant the world to her so thank you to everyone who has written to her, shared their stories with her over the years and worked alongside her.
“We hope the humour, ingenuity and audacity she brought to her work may continue to inspire you as it will do us. We kindly ask that we are given privacy and time to grieve.”
However, in an interview in September 2026, she sadly admitted she was “too physically fragile to make the journey” to Dignitas. She was speaking ahead of an MPs vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, where she urged those in power to vote in favour of legalising assisted dying for England and Wales.
“Everything I didn’t want to happen I’m having to go through now, which means that the people I love and care about either cannot visit me, or when they do, see me suffering pain or indignity which will inevitably get between them and our shared happy memories, and may even overwhelm the way they think of me,” she said.
Esther has been a staunch campaigner for the Bill, which would allow terminally ill people in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to seek an assisted death, subject to approval by doctors and legal professionals. It had originally passed two votes in the Commons in 2024 and 2025 but ran out of time in the Lords in April.
It was reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards and will go through the process once more, where initially MPs vote on the Second Reading of the Bill before it then goes through Parliament for further consideration by MPs and peers in the House of Lords.
Of her wish to go to Dignitas with the law as it at present, Esther admitted her decision had put her family and friends in a difficult position. She told Radio 4: “They would want to go with me. The police might prosecute them.
“My family say it’s my choice. I explained to them that I don’t want their last memories of me to be painful. If you watch someone you love having a bad death, that memory obliterates all the happy times.”
Dame Esther’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, said she supported her mum’s decision but feared travelling with her to the clinic could lead to her arrest. She said: “I’m not legally allowed to say I’d go with her, that I would hold her hand – and that is absolutely ridiculous. I should be able to sit with my mother in her last moments.
“I can’t go to prison, I can’t go through a court case at the worst point of my life, when I’ve lost my person and I’m suddenly being prosecuted with her death. It’s unfathomable. I can’t believe this is the situation we’re in.”
The broadcaster leaves behind her three children, who she shared with Desmond Wilcox.
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.
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