The former TV presenter, known for hosting shows such as That’s Life!, established charities to help the young and old, and in recent years became a prominent voice in the attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
Dame Esther was “the most wonderful mother”, a “cherished grandmother”, and someone who will be remembered for “her endless capacity for joy”, her family said in a statement paying tribute.
Dame Esther hosted BBC consumer affairs show That’s Life! for 21 years from 1973 to 1994, which led to her setting up Childline in 1986, to provide counselling services for young people.
She later launched The Silver Line in 2012, which aims to tackle loneliness in older people.
In later life Dame Esther became a strong proponent for assisted dying, after she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023.
She openly discussed her plan to “buzz off to Zurich” to have an assisted death at Dignitas and criticised the “messy and cruel” law in England and Wales which would criminalise loved ones who tried to help.
But in September 2026, ahead of a vote by MPs which would see efforts to legalise assisted dying defeated in Parliament, Dame Esther shared that it was now too late for her to travel, as she had become “too physically fragile to make the journey”.
She told of her anguish at loved ones seeing her “suffering pain or indignity” while she received end-of-life care and expressed sadness when the assisted dying Bill fell – branding it a “tragic day”.
She became known to TV audiences as the host of the BBC’s long-running That’s Life!, a consumer affairs magazine show with an often satirical edge that she helped create.
A ratings hit, That’s Life! became one of the most popular programmes on British television, expanding the traditional role of the consumer programme to investigating life-and-death issues, such as a boarding school employing paedophiles and a nationwide shortage of organ donors.
In the mid-1980s, she founded Childline, a helpline for children in danger or distress, after a temporary helpline open for viewers impacted by a programme about a toddler who had starved to death was swamped with callers.
The calls mainly came from children suffering sexual abuse they had never been able to disclose to anyone else, giving Dame Esther Rantzen the idea for a specific helpline for children, open 24/7 throughout the year.
Her family said in its statement that Dame Esther’s “legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities Childline and the Silverline, and through those of us who were lucky enough to love and be loved by her.
“We are grateful she is finally at rest with her beloved husband, Desmond Wilcox, but we will miss her immeasurably. She was our sunshine.
“We will always remember her endless capacity for joy, her ability to comfort every heartache, her beautiful way with words and her expert guidance in all things.
“She was the most wonderful mother to us three children and a cherished grandmother to her five treasured grandchildren. We have been so lucky for so long, no matter how much time we had with Mum it could be never be enough, but we are so grateful for our lives together.
“Mum’s work with charities and campaigning, particularly for children, older people, and the terminally ill, meant the world to her so thank you to everyone who has written to her, shared their stories with her over the years and worked alongside her.
“We hope the humour, ingenuity and audacity she brought to her work may continue to inspire you as it will do us.”
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