Sir David: I’m scared of becoming an encumbrance on my children
SIR david Attenborough has revealed his fear of ‘becoming an appalling encumbrance’ on his children before he dies.
The 91-year-old is one of Britain’s best-loved TV presenters and has said he wants to keep working for as long as he can.
But the broadcaster has now admitted he worries about being a burden to his family in years to come. Asked if he is scared of dying, he told Stylist magazine: ‘ i’m scared of becoming an appalling encumbrance on my children.’
And asked if there is anything he would like to know before he died he answered ‘whether there is an afterlife’. Sir david had been married to his wife elizabeth for 47 years when she died of a brain haemorrhage in 1997.
He was in New Zealand filming The Life Of Birds when she went into a coma but he made it back in time to be at her side before she passed away.
Speaking to Louis Theroux in an interview with the Radio Times earlier this month, Sir david said he felt he was away filming for too long when his children were young.
He said: ‘if i do have regrets, it is that when my children were the same age as your children, i was away for three months at a time. if you have a child of six or eight and you miss three months of his or her life, it’s irreplaceable; you miss something.’
His daughter Susan is a primary school teacher and his son Robert is a senior lecturer in biological anthropology at the Australian National University. They are both in their 50s.
in recent years Sir david’s life has been beset with personal tragedy. He lost his brother, the actor Richard Attenborough, in 2014 and his brother John, a motor executive and finance consultant, in 2012.
He also lost his niece Jane Holland and her daughter Lucy in the 2004 indian Ocean tsunami.