Richard Branson previously opened up about experiencing 'love at first sight' with his wife Joan, who sadly passed away this week aged 80.
The Virgin Group co-founder announced yesterday (25 November) that his ‘wife and partner for 50 years has passed away’. ‘Heartbroken’, the 75-year-old said in a post on Instagram that she was his ‘best friend’.
Branson did not share a cause of death for Templeman, whom he married on his Necker Island in 1989 and shared three children and five grandchildren with.
The entrepreneur added: “She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world. Love you forever, Joan x."
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Their son, Sam, described Templeman as the ‘kindest, most loving, warm and abundantly generous woman to walk this Earth’. And in an old post, Branson spoke about when their paths first crossed.
In 2020, when celebrating their wedding anniversary, he wrote that he met Templeman at The Manor, the live-in recording studio built for Virgin Records.
“I often make up my mind about someone within 30 seconds of meeting them, and I fell for Joan almost from the moment I saw her,” he wrote.
“Joan was a down-to-earth Scottish lady and I quickly realised she wouldn’t be impressed by my usual antics.”
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Templeman was working close by in a London antiques shop where Branson ‘built up the courage to walk in’.
He then ‘pretended’ to the shop owner that he was ‘fascinated’ by the old signs and advertisements and visited Joan there over weeks, amassing a bit of a collection of old hand-painted tin signs.
Two years after meeting, Branson wanted to show her a ‘grand gesture of affection’ and came across an island in the British Virgin Islands that was up for sale.
“We were still in the early days of Virgin Records, and I definitely did not have the cash to buy it - but try telling that to a fool in love!” he explained.
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“The realtor offered me a trip to see the island. Before we knew it, Joan and I were high in the sky, looking down over our future home. It was the second time I experienced love at first sight.”
He eventually managed to get an offer accepted a year later with the pair later marrying there as he said it’s their ‘home’.
“If I cast my mind back to that day at The Manor 44 years ago, I never could have imagined what the next four decades would bring, with a lifetime of love, wonderful children in Holly and Sam and our delightful grandchildren,” he added.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do all it without Joan, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Topics: Richard Branson, Celebrity
Jess Battison