Overview
- Dame Esther Rantzen died on Wednesday at her home in the New Forest, her three children said in a family statement that asked for privacy as they grieve.
- She rose to national fame as presenter of the BBC consumer series That's Life! from 1973 to 1994 and used that platform to campaign on social issues.
- Rantzen founded Childline in 1986 to give children a confidential 24/7 counselling service and later set up The Silver Line around 2012–2013 to help isolated older people.
- After revealing a stage-four lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 she joined the Swiss clinic Dignitas and campaigned to change UK law, but told supporters in September 2026 that she had become too frail to travel for an assisted death.
- MPs voted to reject a bill to legalise assisted dying earlier in September 2026, a defeat Rantzen had publicly lobbied against and a development that sharpens debate about end-of-life options and the future of related reform efforts.