Overview
- Her three children confirmed Wednesday that Dame Esther Rantzen died at her home in the New Forest surrounded by family.
- Rantzen publicly disclosed a lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 and spent her final years campaigning for legal change after joining the Swiss clinic Dignitas in December 2023.
- She became too physically frail to travel to Switzerland for assisted dying and a parliamentary bill to legalise assisted dying was rejected by MPs in September 2026.
- Rantzen rose to national prominence as the long‑time presenter of the BBC’s That’s Life! and used that platform to found Childline in 1986 and The Silver Line in 2012/13.
- Her family asked for privacy while paying tribute to her charity legacy and joy, and Childline and The Silver Line will continue to carry forward the causes she championed.