Joan Branson Has Died

Joan Branson, the wife of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, has died at age 80.

Branson announced the loss of his beloved wife Tuesday on Instagram, writing, “Heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away. She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for.”

The British billionaire added, “She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world,” concluding, “Love you forever, Joan x”

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Richard and Joan tied the knot in 1989 and went on to have three children together — Holly, 44, Sam, 40 and Clare Sarah, who died at just 4 days old.

Wednesday, Richard took to Instagram to share that he and his children were “all together now, doing our best to smile through the tears and to focus on all the good things Joan brought into our world,” noting that “there are so many.”

“Fate has a strange way of working,” he continued. “As many already know, I’d come off my bike in India and hurt my shoulder. Joan was recovering from her own back injury in hospital in England. In the way life sometimes surprises you, I found myself moved to a room just down the corridor from her. We laughed together about how typical it was of us to end up on the same floor, like love-struck teenagers delighted to find each other again.”

Richard recalled a “lovely lunch” with his wife that day, writing that she was “in positive spirits and getting stronger.”

“She smiled at me, that radiant smile that lit up her whole face, the same smile I fell in love with the very first moment I saw her, half a century ago,” he went on. “Then suddenly, she was gone, quickly and painlessly. And thankfully, I was right by her side. It brings us all great comfort to know we were together.”

Richard looked back fondly on the “incredible final year” he had with his wife, which included “her beautiful 80th birthday celebration at Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, surrounded by her closest friends; Sam’s 40th celebrations onboard Virgin Voyages; countless moments where she was beaming with happiness.”

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“She lived so fully and joyfully, always thinking of others, always lifting everyone else up,” the business mogul wrote. “To see her so happy in those last months is something we will treasure forever.”

“Life will never be the same without her,” he continued. “But we have fifty incredible years of memories – years filled with tears and laughter, kindness, and a love that shaped our family more than words could ever capture. It was a relationship that worked. We just had lots of laughs. We were very lucky.”

While Richard and his family are “devastated” at Joan’s passing, he said he was “far more grateful for the extraordinary gift of the life we shared – with our remarkable kids, Sam and Holly, and our wonderful grandkids, who adored her (and her sweets!) just as deeply as I did.”

He concluded, “Joan was my everything, the shining star around which our family’s universe has always orbited. That light is not gone; it’s just taken on a new shape. It will guide us forward. And we will carry her with us, always.”