Dame Esther Rantzen’s family pay tribute to ‘our sunshine’ after her death at 86

Tributes have been paid to broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen who is said to have left an “extraordinary legacy” through her campaigning work and been described as “our sunshine” by her family.

The 86-year-old died surrounded by loved ones at her home in the New Forest on Wednesday.

The former presenter, known for hosting shows such as That’s Life!, established charities to help the young and old, and in recent years became a prominent voice in the attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.

Dame Esther was “the most wonderful mother”, a “cherished grandmother”, and someone who will be remembered for “her endless capacity for joy”, her family said in a statement paying tribute.

Dame Esther was best known for presenting That’s Life! and setting up Childline (Jonathan Brady/PA)

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Her children, Miriam, Rebecca and Joshua Wilcox, said their mother’s “legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities”.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Dame Esther had “changed countless lives and gave a voice to people who often went unheard”.

Dame Esther hosted BBC consumer affairs show That’s Life! for 21 years from 1973 to 1994, which led to her setting up Childline in 1986, to provide counselling services for young people.

The chief executive of the NSPCC, which runs Childline, described Dame Esther as a “unique and truly remarkable woman” who leaves behind an “extraordinary legacy”, estimating that millions of children had been helped in the 40 years since the helpline was founded.

She also launched The Silver Line in 2012, which aims to tackle loneliness in older people.

In later life Dame Esther became a strong proponent for assisted dying, after she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023.

She openly discussed her plan to “buzz off to Zurich” to have an assisted death at Dignitas and criticised the “messy and cruel” law in England and Wales which would criminalise loved ones who tried to help.

But in mid-September, ahead of a vote by MPs which would see efforts to legalise assisted dying defeated in Parliament, Dame Esther said it was now too late for her to travel, as she had become “too physically fragile to make the journey”.

Journalist and broadcaster Esther Rantzen in 1980 (PA)

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She told of her anguish at loved ones seeing her “suffering pain or indignity” while she received end-of-life care and expressed sadness when the assisted dying Bill fell – branding it a “tragic day”.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who led an attempt at Westminster to legalise assisted dying, described Dame Esther as “a strong, warm and compassionate woman and a fighter to the end”.

She credited Dame Esther’s campaigning on the issue with having “helped all those others like her who were confronting a terminal illness to keep going in the knowledge that they were not alone”.

Campaign group Dignity in Dying hailed her for having “used her platform to speak truth to power” as part of the effort to introduce assisted dying.

Dame Esther first became a star fronting That’s Life!, the magazine show she helped devise, which featured reports on consumer affairs often blended with satire.

The show was a ratings hit and became one of the most popular programmes on British television, expanding the traditional role of the consumer programme to investigating life-and-death issues, such as a boarding school employing paedophiles and a lack of organ donors.

She founded Childline, a helpline for children in danger or distress, after a temporary helpline opened for viewers affected by a programme about a toddler who had starved to death was swamped with callers.

The calls mainly came from children suffering sexual abuse they had never been able to disclose to anyone else, giving Dame Esther Rantzen the idea for a specific helpline for children, open 24/7 throughout the year.

Esther Rantzen in the Childline offices in Belfast in 2009 (Paul Faith/PA)

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In a statement, her children paid tribute to their “adored mother”.

They said: “Her legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities Childline and The Silver Line, 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.

TV presenter Esther Rantzen and her husband Desmond Wilcox in 1993 (PA)

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“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.”