He’s a man with no enemies who has devoted a lifetime of extraordinary service to our planet.

As Sir David Attenborough reaches the remarkable age of 99, the ever-humble figure in the entertainment industry is using his birthday as an opportunity to convey a powerful message: ‘By saving the oceans, we save our planet.’

However, this incredible milestone for the esteemed naturalist likely carries a sense of melancholy, as his greatest love—apart from the natural world—is absent from his celebrations.

Jane, his wife, was not only his soulmate, but the very rock on which he built his life.

‘My wife was a very special woman,’ Sir David previously told this newspaper.

‘She decided to forgo her career as a cook following our marriage, holding the traditional view that marriage and raising a family was a profession in itself.’

‘But she was special in the sense that she let me go off around the world. She knew it made me happy; she wanted that for me.’ 

It was while Sir David was filming in New Zealand that he received the devastating phone call: Jane, 70, had suffered a brain haemorrhage and had fallen into a coma.

The BBC rushed Sir David to her side in London.

‘She never recovered consciousness but she knew I was back because she clasped my hand,’ he said of that day in February 1997.

Sir David Attenborough and his wife Jane in 1991. Lady Attenborough died from a brain haemorrhage in 1997 on February 10 aged 70

‘The surgeon very gently and compassionately said that there was no way he could operate because she simply wasn’t strong enough. 

‘She died one day short of our 47th wedding anniversary. It was a very happy marriage.’ 

Sir David and Jane – born Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel – met while students. She was his first and only serious girlfriend.

They were both 18 and at the age of 24, when he had finished his national service with the Royal Navy, they married in 1950.

In 1951, their son, Robert, was born and a year later Sir David joined the BBC. Two years later, their daughter Susan arrived.

The strength and devotion of the Attenborough marriage was legendary. Jane never failed to meet him at the airport when he returned from his film trips. 

A technician who worked with him previously recalled to the Daily Mail at being astonished at seeing the cool, professional naturalist suddenly transformed into a passionate husband. 

‘The way those two greeted one another looked more like a couple of teenagers having a snog at a disco,’ they said.

The couple are pictured on their wedding day with his brother and best man, Richard Attenborough, at St. Anne’s Church, Kew Green, in Richmond upon Thames in 1950

Sir David and Lady Jane had two children; Robert and Susan 

Although Jane’s death came as a terrible shock, she had been ill for some time.

‘She had had a huge operation 18 months ago for a non-cancerous tumour. But we knew she was going to need a further operation,’ said Sir David.

‘But what killed her was nothing to do with the cancer. It was a brain tumour, which isn’t uncommon. 

‘It’s part of the ageing process. Things fail, the body fails…

‘It’s so very sad because the cancer she had wasn’t an aggressive one. It would have killed her eventually, but it would have taken time.’   

If ever Sir David had been frightened by collapsing glaciers, stampeding rhinos or wild elephants in his career, it was nothing compared with the fear of the lonely years ahead without the woman he always came home to. 

‘I am absolutely distraught,’ he said in the months after Jane’s death. 

‘I hope I am coping, but Jane has looked after me ever since we married. Her death was a bolt out of the blue. We loved each other so very much, and I don’t quite know how I’m going to adapt to life without her. 

‘She kept our family going.’

He continued: ‘I will miss the parties, the friends, the laughter she created here [their home in Richmond]. 

‘Jane was a superb cook and wonderful hostess. We made many close friends at the BBC over the years. In the Fifties, the organisation was very small so we were a very tightknit group, and those were the people who came to our home over the years. Those were the people at Jane’s funeral.’ 

The family at home in Richmond, pictured in 1955 with their pet tortoise

The naturalist was knighted by the Queen at an investiture at Buckingham Palace, London, with his wife Jane (right) and daughter Susan (left) in 1985

The mourners at St Anne’s Church in Kew Green included Sir David’s brother Richard, Lord Attenborough, and his family, Anna Ford, Bill Cotton, Bamber Gascoigne and friends from theatre and TV. It was at St Anne’s that David and Jane were married 47 years ago. 

It was there that their children — Robert and Susan — were baptised. 

‘Many women whose husbands worked away as often as I did might have made a different life for themselves,’ said Sir David.

‘Jane didn’t; the family was as central to her life as it was to mine. 

‘That’s not to say she didn’t have her own interests and her own friends. She was an enthusiastic potter and she did social work here in Richmond and worked with various charities. So yes, she had friends, but never her own life.’ 

Sir David said many people may have thought him selfish. 

‘Some might say: “But what did she want?” I knew just what Jane wanted. The two of us were such homebirds. When I came home from trips I just wanted to be with her. She was my rock. It was as simple as that. 

The strength and devotion of the Attenborough marriage was legendary 

Sir David Attenborough’s new film is set to be different to his previous documentaries and has been described as the ‘greatest message he’s ever told’. Pictured July 2024

‘She was a very modest woman and the personification of unselfishness. Her support provided me with the stability to do my work. 

‘I know it may sound hard but I have no regrets about my work because we had such a wonderful marriage. And it was always such a joy to be together again. Jane would always meet me at the airport. 

‘Sometimes she used to travel with me, but, by and large, travelling through rainforests wasn’t her scene. 

‘She enjoyed coming on the odd trip because she liked to see what I had to do professionally, so that she was able to talk to me about it.’ 

Even in his 70s and with the loss of Jane, Sir David was sure of one thing: he must keep working. 

‘Jane would have been very upset if I’d stopped working because of her. She would never have allowed that.’ 

Asked if he could single out one aspect of his wife he missed the most.

‘Her presence,’ he answered simply. 

‘It’s certainly not the fact that I don’t get a cup of tea in the mornings.’

• Sir David’s new documentary Ocean will be in cinemas across the country from Thursday.