John Simpson is a familiar face of BBC News as he has worked with BBC for almost all years of his professional career. As a foreign correspondent, John has reported from more than 120 countries and has covered many big events. He also has interviewed some of the world leaders.
Since John has been active in his professional career for many decades now, his personal life has been overshadowed by his profession.
Many people are curious whether John is still married to his wife or not. Likewise, his family life has also intrigued many of his fans.
Let’s find out more about BBC correspondent John Simpson in the content below.
Is John Simpson Still Married?
John has been married twice in his life. He was first married to Diane Petteys and after the divorce, he tied the knot with his second wife, Dee (Adele) Kruger.
After experiencing a failed marriage in the past, John is still married to his current wife.
John and Dee got married in 1996 and have been enjoying a blissful married life for 27 years. They are even parents to a son named Rafe, whose presence in their lives has made their relationship more meaningful and enthralling.
John shares an extraordinary bond with his son and has opened up about their relationship in many of his interviews.
He has revealed that his son gives an insight into a different and much younger world. Rafe has even brought calmness and enjoyment into his life.
John now lives in Oxford with his wife Dee and son Rafe.
John Simpson has often gushed about his family life on Twitter. Earlier this year in July, John gave a glimpse of his family lunch on Twitter but just shared the picture of the table.
He spent a few days with his wife and son in Sherwood Forest in October 2020. He tweeted about the quality time he spent with his family, walking the dog, reading, and forgetting momentarily about the world’s awfulness in October 2020.
Likewise, the family of three spent the weekend in a lodge in the Forest of Dean in November 2019.
John has shared several pictures with his son Rafe from their father-son moments on Instagram.
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Who Is John Simpson’s Wife?
John Simpson’s wife Dee Kurger is a television producer by profession. They have been together for more than 28 years since they met in South Africa during the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela where Dee was John’s producer.
John and Dee have not just accompanied each other as husband and wife but also as co-workers. They have worked together in difficult places, facing extreme tests. The duo became the first people to do a live broadcast from a war zone in Afghanistan.
Apart from the challenges in their professional career, they also faced difficulty in starting their family. John has revealed that their largest challenge was having a baby.
John and Dee went through four miscarriages and struggled for five years until Dee became pregnant with their son Rafe. Rafe was born in the year 2006 and is currently at the age of 17.
John also has two daughters from his first marriage.
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Ex-Wife And Daughters
John was previously married to Diane Petteys for 18 years. His ex-wife Diane is an American portrait painter.
They exchanged wedding vows in 1965 and began their journey as a husband and wife. When John and Diane were married, they became parents to two kids- two daughters named Julia and Eleanor.
However, John’s marital relationship with his ex-wife turned sour as time passed so they decided to end their relationship with a divorce.
Following the separation, John opened up about the guilt of leaving his wife and children. Talking about the anguish he felt after leaving his wife and daughters, he said,
“It was an outrageous thing to do, leaving my wife and our two teenage daughters. No matter how I try to justify my actions, I can't avoid the fact that I walked away from them. It was one of my many mid-life crises, which seem to have lasted most of my life.”
John further said that he hasn’t been a good father to their daughters and has never spent “quantity time or quality time” with his children. He didn’t see his daughters enough while they were growing up. He explained their relationship by saying,
“I love their company when we're together, but we're more distant than daughters and fathers should be. We're more like personal friends than members of the same family. They look at me like Diane did, and still does, as somebody who can't break the habit of flying off somewhere every five minutes. They think of me as a kind of arrested adolescent. It's no doubt their way of dealing with a father who wasn't there. In their eyes I'm this dreadful absentee father. That's a terrible thing to be.”
His daughters from his first marriage endured a lot when his relationship with his ex-wife broke. Because of that experience, John has revealed that he won’t make the same mistake with Rafe.
John and his ex-wife met in the sixties when John was attending Cambridge. He was just 21 years old when he got married to his first wife.
John and Diane were divorced ten years after they got separated.
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John Simpson’s Parents
His parents’ names are Joyce Lela Vivian Whittall and Roy Simpson Fidler. His parents got separated when he was just six years old.
His mom was a war widow and had two children from her previous relationship. Since his mom already had two kids and his dad had only him, he decided to stay with his dad when his parents parted ways.
John saw her mother very few times before she died in 1983.
John Simpson’s Net Worth
John Simpson has covered several big events and world affairs throughout his professional career. He is best known as the BBC News foreign correspondent and world affairs editor.
His professional career has helped him amass huge fame and fortune. John has assembled a net worth in the millions but the exact value of his net worth hasn’t been revealed yet. However, his net worth in 2022 is estimated to be more than $5 million.
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Short Wiki
- John Simpson was born in the year 1944 and is currently the age of 79.
- His birthday is on the 9th of August.
- His zodiac sign is Leo.
- John attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and St Paul's School for his early education.
- He then joined Magdalene College, Cambridge.
- John began working as a trainee sub-editor at BBC radio news in 1966.
