Richard Branson Recounts Final Moments With Late Wife Joan in Emotional Tribute: 'Suddenly She Was Gone'

Richard Branson is mourning the loss of his wife, Joan Templeman, recounting their final moments together and the love that defined their family.

“Holly, Sam and I are all together now, doing our best to smile through the tears and to focus on all the good things Joan brought into our world. There are so many,” Branson wrote in a lengthy tribute posted via Instagram on Wednesday, November 26, mentioning their children.

Branson and Templeman tied the knot in 1989, welcoming three children: Holly, 44, Sam, 30, and Clare Sarah during their nearly 50-year marriage.

The couple tragically lost their youngest child at only four days old after the baby was born three months early.

The billionaire investor recounted his final days with his long-time partner, explaining the pair found themselves being treated on the same floor of an English hospital.

“We laughed together about how typical it was of us to end up on the same floor, like love-struck teenagers delighted to find each other again,” he recalled, noting the pair had a “lovely lunch” that day. “She was in positive spirits and getting stronger. She smiled at me, that radiant smile that lit up her whole face, the same smile I fell in love with the very first moment I saw her, half a century ago.”

Branson looked back on his last hours with his wife, noting she passed “quickly and painlessly."

“Life will never be the same without her. But we have fifty incredible years of memories — years filled with tears and laughter, kindness, and a love that shaped our family more than words could ever capture. It was a relationship that worked. We just had lots of laughs. We were very lucky,” he signed off. “Joan was my everything, the shining star around which our family’s universe has always orbited. That light is not gone; it’s just taken on a new shape. It will guide us forward. And we will carry her with us, always.”

Branson publicly confirmed his wife’s death one day earlier. Her cause of death remains unclear.

“Heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away," he wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, November 25, alongside a smiling photo of Templeman. "She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for. She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world."