It has been several months now since his sad death, and his absence has been felt for all those months that he has not been around. For George Alagiah’s wife, Frances Robathan, and their two children, every day comes with the reminder that they are going to live the remainder of their lives with their husband and father, not around them.
It was revealed that Alagiah was receiving treatment for colorectal cancer in April 2014. In 2023, Alagiah passed away on July 24, at the age of 67. According to his agency, he passed away quietly in the company of his loved ones.
If you were George Alagiah’s wife, Frances Robathan, these may not be the happiest moments for you. But do you know who Frances Robathan is? In this article, we are going to look into the details of who she is and how their relationship panned out until the death of George Alagiah.
Who Was George Alagiah?
On November 22, 1955, George Maxwell Alagiah was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, often known as Ceylon. His family later relocated to Ghana due to ethnic turmoil. Later, he and his siblings attended school in England.
His sisters, Jenny Johnson, Chris Dennington, Rachel Stojan, and Mari Martin, all discussed the significant effects of these journeys on their early years.
“Our parents must have instilled in us a sense of adventure,” Mari said, “because we never felt fear or trepidation.”
After working for South Magazine for seven years in print journalism, Alagiah joined the BBC in 1989. He worked as a Southern Africa correspondent in Johannesburg before moving to London as a Developing World correspondent.
He covered everything from the Rwandan genocide to the suffering of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq to the civil wars in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Somalia as one of the BBC’s top international correspondents.
George Alagiah was one of the best at what he did, and the numerous awards and recognition that he had before his death are a testament to the fact that he was very good at what he did.
Alagiah was a member of the BBC crew that won a BAFTA award in 2000 for their coverage of the Kosovo War. He received multiple honors, such as the Royal Television Society’s Best International Report in 1993 and the Amnesty International UK Media Awards’ top honor in 1994.
In recognition of his contributions to journalism, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year’s Honours.
The Death of George Alagiah
If anyone was more affected by the death of the former BBC journalist, it has to be his wife, but who is George Alagiah’s wife? We will get to learn about his wife, but for now, let’s revisit the sad event of his death months ago.
On July 24, 2023, at the age of 67, George Alagiah died sadly. He was reported to have died peacefully, surrounded by his family and loved ones.
Several months after his death, there was a memorial service in his honor, and the events therein have generated a lot of attention.
The memorial funeral for BBC News presenter George Alagiah, who passed away in July, drew hundreds of attendees. Coworkers and family members paid their respects to one of the most beloved characters on British television.
Three weeks prior to his passing on July 17, 2023, George Alagiah gave his wife Frances the text he wanted to read aloud at his memorial.
This is what has made George Alagiah’s wife a topical issue in the past few days.
“It is a painful yet exclusive luxury to be living with cancer because, for the most part, it is a story of a death foretold,” he began. “Many of us cancer patients know that our time is running out, so there is time for reflection. It is not the brutality of a car crash.”
Approximately four months afterward, 800 close friends, associates, and relatives of George heard his last thoughts being shared with the world by Sophie Raworth, his former co-presenter on BBC Six O’Clock News.
The people who gathered in the church auditorium went home with some valuable pieces of advice from George Alagiah, which included:
“If you haven’t already told the people you love that you love them, tell them;
“If you haven’t already told them how vulnerable you sometimes feel, tell them;
“If you want to tell them that you’d like to be with them until the front hall stairs feel like Everest, tell them.
“You never know what is coming around the corner.
“And if, lucky you, there is nothing around the corner, then at least you got your defence in first.”
Frances Robathan: Who Is George Alagiah’s Wife?
Frances Robathan is George Alagiah’s wife. Having met at Durham University, they got married in 1984. They had two children together, Adam and Matthew.
The couple, with their children, lived in Stoke Newington, North London.
George Alagiah’s wife, Frances Robathan, was born in 1960 in London.
Frances spent eighteen years working for the Fairtrade Foundation, first as a senior partnership adviser in 2002.
She was also the foundation’s Head of Institutional Fundraising and Head of Program Partnerships.
