Who are Esther Rantzen’s children? A look at the presenter’s three children with late husband Desmond Wilcox as she admits joining Dignitas

Dame Esther Rantzen was married to her late filmmaker and BBC director Desmond Wilcox for thirty years in 1977.

The TV presenter, 83, who shot to fame in the 1970s with her iconic show That’s Life, shared three children with her late partner who died of heart disease in 2000.

After Dame Esther revealed she has joined Dignitas as she battles stage 4 lung cancer and may die there, her middle child has said she would ‘ground the plane’ if her mother flew to Switzerland – but supported her right to decide her own fate.

Esther’s children have spoken of the heartbreak of watching their father, Desmond, suffer a slow and painful death while battling heart disease, adding: ‘That’s what mum wants to avoid.’

Join MailOnline as we take a look into the lives of Dame Esther’s children and the five grandchildren, Benjamin, 10, Alexander and Teddy, both eight, and twins Florence and Romilly, five, that she will leave behind.

Emily

Esther and Desmond welcomed their first child Emily Wilcox in January 1978, who later changed her name to Miriam.

As a teenager, Miriam struggled with some health problems and at the age of 14, after a bout of glandular fever, she was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

She never fully recovered from the disease and Esther and Desmond watched helplessly as Miriam struggled with chronic fatigue that slowly paralyzed her.

Eventually she was imprisoned; confined to bed, lying in a darkened room, unable to read, write or even speak.

At that point, Miriam went to the hospital, where they pushed her until she ended up in a wheelchair, then got back up.

Esther has previously admitted that ‘a great joy in my life was that her father, my husband Desmond, saw her walking again before he died’ in 2000.

And she continued to improve – slowly, year after year. But it was through management and willpower, not through treatment and cure.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2010, Esther talked about her first child, saying: ‘My eldest daughter, Emily, had ME for 14 years. Fortunately, she is better now and lives with me.

‘She joined Kabbalah and changed her name to a more Biblical name, ‘Miriam’ – a bit difficult for me because she was named after my maternal grandmother, Emily, who I adored. But I get around it by calling her ‘Em’.

Rebekah

Esther’s middle child has followed in her famous mother’s footsteps and is a journalist and TV presenter.

Rebecca made a name for herself working at the BBC, presenting shows such as Watchdog.

After Esther went to the assisted dying clinic in Switzerland Rebecca shared how her family reacted to such an emotional decision on Tuesday.

She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘She never makes a decision in complete isolation but she doesn’t care what anyone else says.

‘It’s terrible and she always promised us she would live forever. She’s not normally one to break her promises, so we’re a little upset about that.

“Personally, I would like to ground her plane if she were to fly to Zurich, but I know it is her decision. I just don’t want her to leave.’

As Esther battles lung cancer, Rebecca told the Daily Mail earlier this month that she has taken on her mother’s duties at her beloved charity Childline.

She sad: ‘I was honored to be asked to replace Mum, the current president of Childline, a charity she founded in 1986 after becoming aware of the lack of a helpline for children and young people.

‘Her illness has meant she cannot devote as much time and energy as she would like to the role of President, so I am stepping in to help as it is a charity we are both passionate about.

“Mom always made time to visit the bases, meet the team and listen to the kids on the phone.

“The fact that she has stepped away from this role, in an organization that cherishes it, shows how exhausting living with cancer is, even for someone as seemingly indestructible as my mother.”

Rebecca is also mother to two sons Benjamin, 10, and eight-year-old Alexander.

Joshua

Esther’s youngest child Joshua is a doctor and lives in the West Country with his partner Kelly-Ann and their three children.

The couple are parents to son Teddy and twin daughters Florence and Romilly.

In 2015, The Mail on Sunday revealed that their son Teddy was the result of an affair and a bitter marital breakdown.

Kelly-Ann, a married mother of two, left her husband for Joshua after having an affair with him.

The divorce would have left the abandoned spouse in a state of devastation.

Neither parent spoke publicly at the time, but a close friend, who knows the details of the marriage’s breakdown, said the pair met when junior doctors Joshua and Kelly-Ann went to work at Torbay Hospital, where they had a accident and emergency nurse.

The friend suggests that Kelly-Ann became pregnant just months into the new relationship.

The couple welcomed twin daughters in 2017 and Esther revealed to Daily Mail at the time that she loves being a grandmother.

She said: “So what gives me hope in the future – however long that is – is this sudden gift of grandchildren.

‘I came to the grandmother club quite late. I was well into my seventies when my daughter Rebecca presented me with my first grandson, Benji.

“I spent years watching friends turn into clingy, sentimental grandmas, constantly showing me their latest photos and telling me anecdotes about the toddler geniuses in their families.”