Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen dies aged 86

Dame Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster who founded Childline and later became a leading campaigner for assisted dying, has died aged 86, a family statement has said.

“Our adored mother Dame Esther Rantzen died today,” a statement released on behalf of Dame Esther’s three children, Miriam Wilcox, Rebecca Wilcox and Joshua Wilcox, said. “Her legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities Childline and the Silverline.” The statement described Dame Esther as “the most wonderful mother to us three children and a cherished grandmother to her five treasured grandchildren” and added: “She was our sunshine.” The statement added that the family were grateful Dame Esther was “finally at rest with her beloved husband, Desmond Wilcox.”

Dame Esther presented the BBC1 consumer and current affairs programme That’s Life! for 21 years, from 1973 to 1994. An episode of the show in 1986 that examined childhood sexual abuse led Dame Esther to set up Childline, a confidential helpline for children, later that year. In 2012 Dame Esther also founded the Silver Line, a helpline for older people facing isolation and loneliness.

Dame Esther was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023 and went on to become one of the most prominent public campaigners for a change in the law on assisted dying. Dame Esther had planned to travel to Dignitas, in Zurich, for an assisted death. In September 2026, as an assisted dying bill neared a vote in Parliament, Dame Esther said it was too late to travel to Zurich, having become “too physically fragile to make the journey.” The bill was defeated in Parliament.

The NSPCC, which has run Childline since 1986, said it was deeply saddened by the death of the charity’s founder and president, paying tribute to Dame Esther’s “unwavering energy and tenacity” and saying Dame Esther’s focus was always on the children the helpline was set up to protect.