{"id":211363,"date":"2026-01-01T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/211363\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:31:15","slug":"business-magnate-richard-branson-pays-tribute-to-late-wife-joan-templeman-at-celebration-of-her-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/211363\/","title":{"rendered":"Business magnate Richard Branson pays tribute to late wife Joan Templeman at celebration of her life"},"content":{"rendered":"

English business magnate R\ufeffichard Branson<\/a> has made a touching tribute to late wife Joan Templeman.<\/a><\/p>\n

In celebration of her life and legacy, the Virgin Group founder hosted a memorial for his partner of almost 50 years on his picturesque private island in the Caribbean.<\/a><\/p>\n

Branson shared a series of photos from the event to Instagram today, which showed the pair’s nearest and dearest in attendance.<\/p>\n

“My family and I have always believed in celebrating people’s lives, while they are with us and after they are gone,” the British billionaire captioned the post.<\/p>\n

“There were stories, songs, laughter, and tears, all in honour of the most incredible partner, mum, grandmother, and friend.”\ufeff<\/p>\n

The celebration appeared to include a walk across the 75-acre island, along with speeches and tributes from the pair’s family and friends.<\/p>\n

It comes after Branson announced Templeman’s death<\/a> back in November. She was 80 years old.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Mel Gibson splits from \ufeffpartner of nine years<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Jessie J’s tearful admission amid breast cancer battle<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: First look at Michael J Fox’s return to acting<\/a><\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Branson and his wife, Joan Templeman were married for just shy of 50 years prior to her death in November. (Instagram\/@richardbranson)<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Guardian in 2014, Branson detailed the first step he took in pursuing the woman he would go on to spend half a century with.<\/p>\n

He revealed that Templeman had worked in an antique shop in the London suburb of Notting Hill<\/a> \u2013 which happened to be in close proximity to his office at Virgin Records.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“One day, I hovered uncertainly outside the shop, then built up the courage to walk in,” he recalled.<\/p>\n

“The shop sold old signs and advertisements, which I pretended to the shop owner, Liz, that I was fascinated by.”<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"RichardThe pair first met when Branson was still married to his first wife, and it was reportedly “love at first sight”. (Instagram\/@richardbranson)<\/p>\n

“Over the next few weeks, my visits to Joan amassed me an impressive collection of old hand-painted tin signs, which advertised anything from Hovi bread to Woodbine cigarettes.”<\/p>\n

Following their eventual marriage in 1989, \ufeffthe couple went on to have three children together; daughters Holly and Clare, and son Sam.<\/p>\n

In November, Branson shared a throwback photo of himself with Joan, captioned “I credit a good deal of my success \u2013 not to mention my marriage \u2013 to being a good listener.”\ufeff<\/p>\n

Only a few days later, he took to Instagram to share another photo of him planting a kiss on Joan’s head with the caption, “Everyone needs a Joan in their life”.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"RichardBranson said Templeman was “the most incredible partner, mum, grandmother and friend”. (Instagram\/@richardbranson)<\/p>\n

Then, just two days prior to her death later that month, he shared yet another photo of them together, writing “I love this photo of Joan”.<\/p>\n

But the flood of tribute posts was revealed to be an indication of what was to come, with Branson taking to social media soon after to announce his wife’s death.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE<\/a>: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English business magnate R\ufeffichard Branson has made a touching tribute to late wife Joan Templeman. In celebration of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-211363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}