Australian writer, Bob Hawke’s widow, Blanche d’Alpuget dies at 82

SYDNEY — Blanche d’Alpuget, acclaimed Australian writer and widow of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.

D’Alpuget died from complications arising from influenza, according to her family.

In a final statement released by the family, she said: “Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”

Her family described her as a woman who lived entirely on her own terms, saying they would “miss her force, her humour, her curiosity and her love beyond measure.”

“Blanche wrote and lived entirely on her own terms. She was full of vitality, generosity and curiosity, with an extraordinary appetite for beauty, ideas, history, new places and spirited conversation,” the family said.

“She refused to be confined by convention or by other people’s expectations of who she should be.”

D’Alpuget and Hawke shared what the family described as a “great love” over almost 24 years of life, travel and companionship. They married in 1995 and remained together until Hawke’s death in 2019 at the age of 89.

Born in Sydney, D’Alpuget lived in England, France, Indonesia and Malaysia and went on to establish herself as an accomplished author and biographer.

She published more than a dozen books, including the bestselling 1982 biography, Robert J Hawke: A Biography, which earned the New South Wales Premier’s Award.

The writer and Hawke first met in the 1970s and began a relationship while he was still married to his first wife, Hazel.

D’Alpuget later became closely associated with Hawke’s political legacy, documenting his life and career through her acclaimed biography.

She also wrote historical novels and, in her later years, a detective novel. Her works were known for their frank treatment of relationships and sexuality.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mourned her death, describing D’Alpuget as “a true one-off”.

“As a writer, she was at home in fiction as she was in non-fiction, working in each realm with a keen eye for every telling detail that opened up the humanity of her subject to her readers,” Albanese said.

“Blanche’s novels were compelling works of verve and originality, and her biographies comprehensive and definitive – most famously those she wrote of Bob Hawke, who became her great love and ultimately her husband.”

Albanese also noted the significance of her final message about love, saying it was fitting that her last words to the public carried such a message.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas also paid tribute to D’Alpuget, describing her as a woman of “great intellect, warmth and presence”.

“Blanche was an accomplished Australian author and biographer in her own right, whose writing and contribution to our national story spanned decades,” Malinauskas said.

He described her relationship with Hawke as one of “great affection”, adding that she remained a “passionate custodian of his legacy” following his death.

D’Alpuget is survived by her son from her first marriage, artist and sculptor Louis Pratt; his wife, Brianna; and her granddaughter, Sienna.

She is also survived by Hawke’s children, Sue Pieters-Hawke, Rosslyn Dillon and Stephen Hawke, and their children and grandchildren, to whom she was said to have been close.

Political historian Professor Chris Wallace of the University of Canberra also recalled descriptions of D’Alpuget by the late Susan Ryan, Labor’s first female minister, who remembered the writer as “full of fun”.

D’Alpuget’s career spanned decades and established her as one of Australia’s notable writers and biographers, while her life alongside Hawke placed her at the centre of the country’s political and cultural history.