The tycoon Richard Branson (London, 75 years old) announced the death at the age of 80 of his wife, the Scottish Joan Templeman, his life partner for half a century, married in 1989 and met after a failed first marriage. The British man said goodbye to his wife this Tuesday 25 November, publishing a heartfelt message on his Instagram profile, in which he has accumulated five million followers, accompanied by a photo of himself: “It pains me greatly to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away. She was the most wonderful mother and grandmother that our children and grandchildren could have asked for. She was my best friend, my rock, my light, my world.”
This Wednesday, Branson released a new send farewell on their social media, a long message accompanied this time by a carousel of photos of the couple and their family. With his words he looks back on his last year (such as the celebration of his wife’s 80th birthday in Morocco) and also tells what their last moments together were like. “Fate has a strange way of working. As many of you already know, I fell off my bicycle in India and hurt my shoulder. Joan was recovering from a back injury in a hospital in England. As life sometimes surprises you, I was moved to a room just down the hall from her. We laughed together about how typical it was for us to be on the same page, like teenagers in love and happy to find each other. We had a delicious lunch that day. I was in a good mood and growing strong. She smiled at me, that radiant smile that lit up her entire face, the same smile I fell in love with from the first moment I saw her, half a century ago. Then, suddenly, she was gone, quickly and painlessly. And fortunately, it comforts us all to know that we were together.
“We are devastated by her passing. But I am so much more grateful for the extraordinary gift of life we shared: with our extraordinary children, Sam and Holly, and our wonderful grandchildren, who adored her (and her sweets!) as deeply as I did. Joan was my everything, the shining star around which our family’s universe has always orbited. That light has not disappeared; it has simply taken on a new form. It will guide us forward. And we will carry it with us, always,” concludes Branson. message.
This is how the owner of the Virgin group greeted the woman with whom he had three children: Holly, 44 years old; Sam, 40, and a baby girl who died four days after a premature birth. This double farewell to his wife was not the tycoon’s first public declaration of love, who published other photos portraying them together, always in a complicit and affectionate attitude. The last time was two days before the announcement of Joan’s death, in a shot in which they are seen younger, in what appears to be a public event, and which Branson accompanied with a simple text: “I love this photo of Joan”. First, on November 15, in another photo of the two on the social network, which has already accumulated more than 14,000 I likethe tycoon wrote: “Everyone needs a Giovanna in their life.”
In February 2020, the founder of the Virgin empire – which includes a fleet of planes, Virgin Atlantic Airways, hotels, gyms and financial services – had already written of his admiration for her on the company’s blog to celebrate 44 years since they met (in 1976): “I often form an opinion about someone in the first 30 seconds of meeting them, and I fell in love with Joan almost from the moment I saw her.” To which he added: “Joan was a down-to-earth Scot and I quickly realized she wouldn’t be impressed by my usual antics.” In the same text she explained that they had met while she was working in an antiques shop in Notting Hill and he was starting to build his fortune with the record label Virgin Records.
In 2019, the businessman said Page six that in 1979, during their first dates, he had an idea to woo Joan: to buy a Caribbean island (very close to Puerto Rico) called Necker Island and which, later, served as a tax haven: he moved to live there in 2013 so, as he himself confessed, to avoid paying taxes in the United Kingdom. “Two years after we met, I wanted to show Joan a big gesture of love,” Branson explained of his impressive gift on the Virgin blog. Eleven years after purchasing the island, the couple married there. And, like their parents, their children Holly and Sam did so later, in December 2011 and March 2013, respectively.
In 2020, the island he used to win over his wife was offered as collateral to the British government to receive a loan of 570 million euros and thus preserve his airline after the losses suffered by Virgin during the pandemic. In May 2024, the property Obama learned to build on kitesurfingDiana of Wales spent the summer with her children and when Kate Winslet fell in love with Ned Rocknroll (Branson’s nephew), it became available to any private citizen with a price per night starting from 110,000 euros.
At the first publication on Instagram in which Branson announced the death of his partner – which has already accumulated more than 225,000 pleases— personalities like Paris Hilton and Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia responded to me with condolences, writing, “I’m heartbroken. Joan (was) a bright light in this world. She made everyone feel special,” among the more than 21,000 comments the publication currently has.
