Only Connect presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell has paid a gushing tribute to Dame Esther Rantzen as the That's Life legend celebrated her birthday on Monday June 22. Taking to X, the BBC star penned: "In January 2023, the wonderful Esther Rantzen announced she had stage 4 lung cancer. Today she celebrates her 86th birthday. This example of hope is yet another way in which that magnificent woman has been a force for good in the world." She added a link to a BBC Radio 4 chat she did with the assisted dying campaigner for the Women Talking About Cars show, adding: "Here's an interview I did with her in 2017, where she shines like a sunflower."
Esther's Health Journey and Advocacy
Esther sadly revealed earlier this year that the medicine, which was keeping her illness "at bay," had stopped working. She addressed her own mortality and told The Times: "If there is a heaven, it would be a very happy place. It's a lovely idea to meet [husband] Desmond [Wilcox] again and all those I have loved and lost - my parents and grandparents, my close friends and family."
Esther was married to Desmond for more than two decades until he died in 2000 aged 69, following a heart attack. They share three children together. The couple's daughter Rebecca Wilcox, 46, also recently addressed her mother's birthday in a chat with Express columnist Vanessa Feltz. "It's her birthday coming up. She's going to be 86, which is brilliant. She's as astonished as anybody that she's still here. We are so grateful. She was diagnosed three years ago with terminal stage four lung and breast cancer, so every day is a wonderful miracle, and we really are cherishing it. We are just so grateful to have her here," she said.
Passionate Campaign for Assisted Dying
Since her diagnosis, Esther has become a passionate campaigner for assisted dying. In November 2025, in a recorded conversation with her daughter Rebecca Wilcox, she said she hopes "the law can change as soon as possible so that everybody has the choice." She issued the message to mark the anniversary of the Commons vote which saw MPs back the notion for the first time.
Reflecting on her own health journey, she said she had been wrong to assume her lung cancer would kill her sooner and she reiterated her wish to go to Dignitas, if necessary, when life becomes "unbearable." Asked why the campaign for assisted dying had become so important, Dame Esther told Rebecca: "Your father was a very keen campaigner for it. He made documentaries with people who were desperate to have the choice — that's all it's about. It's about terminally ill patients having the choice. So it was natural for me when I was diagnosed with stage four cancer to think: 'Well, any moment now, I'm going to have to buzz off to Zurich', which was a phrase I used at the time on a podcast and which seems to have appealed to people, not a lot but a bit."
