Stepson Launches £55,000 Fund to Locate Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Challenge Care Control

Alexander Millington-Cotes, the 31-year-old stepson of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, has launched a £55,000 crowdfunder to pay for specialist legal advice to locate and safeguard the 82-year-old explorer, who has Parkinson's disease and has not been seen in public for more than two years. The Guardian

The appeal is called "Locate and Safeguard Sir Ranulph Fiennes" and is listed as a GoFundMe page at /f/helpingranfiennes. Its stated purpose is to fund specialist legal representation and advice, court fees, and the cost of finding Fiennes' exact location to share with relevant authorities. It had raised almost £3,000 on Saturday afternoon, 26 September 2026.

At the centre is a dispute over care and control. Louise Fiennes, 59, Sir Ranulph's second wife, holds lasting power of attorney for his care. That is a legal document that gives one person authority to make decisions about residence, contact and medical arrangements for another. It works a bit like handing over the keys to major life decisions. Millington-Cotes is estranged from his mother Louise and wants that power revoked. The crowdfunder is described as a way to pursue that aim through the courts.

The last scheduled public appearance noted in the account was a gala evening in Fiennes' honour at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington about two years ago. He did not appear in person. He sent a brief prerecorded message saying he was not well enough to attend. Since then there has been no sustained public sighting.

In place of appearances, public information points to moves between care settings. Sir Ranulph spent time in a care home in Wales under a pseudonym. He also spent time in a care home in London. Visitors to him at the London home were asked by Louise Fiennes to sign non-disclosure agreements, formal pledges not to share what they saw, before they were allowed to see him.

Two further details describe the conditions around that care. Arabella McIntyre-Brown, the sister of Sir Ranulph's late first wife Ginny, checked into the London care home for a week in an attempt to speak to him. Separately, a care home owner reported that Mrs Millington-Cotes provided all of Sir Ranulph's medication because he was not registered with a local GP. Yahoo

The broader context here is a family dispute that has moved from private negotiation to public funding for court action. A lasting power of attorney places decision-making about residence, contact and medical care with the appointed person. A challenge moves those questions to lawyers and to a judge. That process needs evidence about location, care arrangements and capacity, and it needs money for representation and filings. The crowdfunder sets out that logic directly.

Looking at what this means for those involved, the lack of public information is now the key problem. The appeal does not name a specific current residence that can be checked independently. It asks donors to fund the search for that information and a legal route to contest the current decision-maker. Estrangement limits informal access. Formal controls on access tighten. Extended family members test those controls. Public fundraising follows when private funds or access run short. None of that settles the question of welfare. It only defines the arena where it will be argued.