‘Holly, Sam and I are all together now, doing our best to smile through the tears and to focus on all the good things Joan brought into our world’
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Richard Branson was with his partner of 50 years when she died as both recovered in hospital from different ailments, the billionaire has shared.
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A day after announcing wife Joan Templeman’s death at age 80, the British business magnate said he and their two children are in mourning.
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“Holly, Sam and I are all together now, doing our best to smile through the tears and to focus on all the good things Joan brought into our world,” the 75-year-old Virgin Group founder wrote on Instagram alongside a series of images of her and the family over the years.
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No cause of death was revealed.
Branson said it was fate that brought them together at a hospital in England after he injured his shoulder falling off a bike in India and she was recovering from a back injury.
He was eventually moved to a room down the hall 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,” he wrote.
Branson said they had lunch recently and he could tell that she was getting stronger while she remained positive about her health.
“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 said.
“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.”
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Their son Sam responded to the tribute with three mending heart emojis.
Branson earlier said he he was “heartbroken” by his wife’s passing.
“She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world,” he wrote Tuesday.
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While the family is devastated by her death, Branson said he is “far more grateful for the extraordinary gift of the life we shared.”
He also shared a photo of the lovebirds on Sunday, possibly foretelling that she didn’t have much time left and simply captioning it, “Love this photo of Joan.”
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Branson said his wife’s 80th birthday was celebrated with her closest friends at Kasbah Tamadot, the family’s luxury hotel and retreat in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains.
“She lived so fully and joyfully, always thinking of others, always lifting everyone else up,” he wrote. “To see her so happy in those last months is something we will treasure forever.”
The couple had three children, including Clare Sarah, who died four days after her birth in 1979.
“Life will never be the same without her,” Branson wrote. “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.”
Branson ended the post by reflecting on the impact his wife had on their family.
“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.”
Before Templeman, Branson was married to Kristen Tomassi from 1972 to 1979. They had no children and the marriage ended in divorce.
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