I REGRET NOT BEING THERE FOR FAMILY
Attenborough looks back on career
SIR DAVID Attenborough has revealed the only regret of his TV career – spending so much time away from his family.
The nature expert, 91, said his work would take him away from home for months when his two children, Susan and Robert, were growing up.
He told broadcaster Louis Theroux: “I really shouldn’t regret anything because I’ve been just so unbelievably lucky.
“But if I do have regrets, it is that when my children were as young 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.” Praising his late wife Jane for being so understanding, he added: “Perhaps you can’t have your cake and eat it.”
During the interview for Radio Times, out today, he also spoke of his fears over the effects of global warming, his gradual turn to vegetarianism and his weakness for chocolate.
Attenborough, whose career has spanned almost 60 years, is presenting the fourth series of his show Natural Curiosities on W.
He explained that the line between species is more “fuzzy” than we realise and that gender differences in humans are less “clear-cut” than in the animal kingdom.
Asked if he believed men are naturally dominant, he said: “There is a basis of that but we now know that sexuality is not as clear-cut as you might have thought.
“Man-animal comparisons can be manipulated and distorted into what people want it to say but biologically it’s irresponsible.”
After turning 91 last month, Attenborough said he thinks about his own mortality “all the time”. He added: “It’s more and more likely that I’m going to die tomorrow.”