Dame Esther Rantzen has spoken candidly about her terminal cancer diagnosis and the emotional final wish she holds close to her heart: to be reunited with her late husband, Desmond Wilcox.
The beloved broadcaster and Childline founder, 84, is battling stage 4 lung cancer and recently revealed her time is now “extremely limited.”
In a moving interview with The Times, she reflected on her enduring love for Desmond, who died from a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 69.
“If there is a heaven, it would be a very happy place,” she said. “It’s a lovely idea to meet Desmond again and all those I have loved and lost — my parents and grandparents, my close friends and family.”
Dame Esther and her husband’s relationship began in 1968 while working at the BBC and evolved into a lifelong partnership.
The couple married in 1977 and were together for three decades, raising three children.
Back in 2013, Dame Esther revealed just how deep her grief ran, saying she would “give up a decade of life” for just ten more minutes with her late husband.
“Desmond’s last words to me were, ‘I adore you,’” she recalled. “I was sitting on his deathbed. I will take those words with me to the grave.
“I said to my son last night, ‘If God gave me the choice between ten more years of life and ten more minutes with Desi, I would pick those ten minutes.’”
Her comments come after her daughter Rebecca Wilcox revealed that the broadcaster is no longer responding to a cancer treatment that once gave her hope.
Dame Esther was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023 and, at one point, was given just weeks to live.
However, she later shared that an “amazing” new drug had been keeping the disease “at bay.”
Speaking on 5 News last month, Wilcox confirmed the treatment is no longer effective.
When asked if her mother’s condition had improved, she admitted: “I really wish that was true, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
Dame Esther and Wilcox have been vocal advocates for legalising assisted dying in the UK.
The Childline founder had previously considered traveling to Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic to end her life, but her daughter shared that her health has now made that option impossible.
She said: “Frankly Dignitas is out of the window for us as well.
“You have to be relatively healthy to do that, if she had gone, she would have gone months before she would have died here.”
Last May, Dame Esther acknowledged that while her treatment had prolonged her life, she knew it wouldn’t be effective indefinitely.
