Dame Esther Rantzen, That's Life! presenter and Childline founder, dies at 86
Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 86. Her children Miriam Wilcox, Rebecca Wilcox and Joshua Wilcox confirmed her death in a statement issued to the Press Association, Deadline reported.
Rantzen was the BAFTA-winning presenter of That's Life!. The programme mixed consumer investigations with human interest stories. She hosted it for more than two decades.
Her factual broadcasting earned her BAFTA's Richard Dimbleby Award in 1988. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014 for services to children and older people through her charity work.
She later appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Samantha Spiro played her in the film One Life. The film revisited a That's Life! episode that reunited humanitarian Nicholas Winton with Jewish children he had rescued from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
Rantzen was the founder of Childline, the helpline for children and young people, BBC News reported. Her children said her legacy will live on in Childline and in the Silver Line, the helpline for older people she also founded.
She had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2023. The cancer was at stage four. She disclosed the diagnosis in May 2023, at age 82, saying it had been found in January of that year.
In December 2023, at age 83, she said she was undergoing what she called a “miracle” treatment, BBC News reported. At the same time, she said she had joined an assisted dying clinic. She became a campaigner for legalising assisted dying in the United Kingdom.
She had intended to end her life at a Swiss clinic, The Guardian reported. In early September 2026 she said she was now too physically fragile to travel to Switzerland, BBC News reported.
Her family paid tribute to her as a broadcaster, campaigner and charity founder. They pointed to the two helplines as the work that would continue.
