Who Is Richard Branson's Wife? All About Joan Templeman

Richard Branson and his wife Joan Templeman married in 1989

Richard Branson may be one of the most successful businessmen of our time, taking his Virgin empire to new heights with each new launch. But in his personal life, he has enjoyed a steady home life with his wife, Joan Templeman.

“I often make up my mind about someone within 30 seconds of meetings them, and I fell for Joan almost from the moment I saw her. Joan was a down-to-earth Scottish lady and I quickly realized she wouldn’t be impressed by my usual antics,” Branson wrote on the Virgin blog in 2020 to honor the 44 years since they first met.

Sharing his tips on how to have long-lasting love like he and Templeman, Branson has said that it’s something that you need to be committed to working hard on.

“I think you have to work on it,” he told Page Six during a 2019 interview. “I think if you just sit back and wait for it to come it’s not necessarily going to happen. I think you’ve got to be willing to subtly chase somebody if you’re really interested.”

“With my own wife, I was known as ‘Tagalong,’ ” he added. “I would end up literally chasing. Finally, hopefully, they’ll give in.”

His chasing paid off, and Branson and Templeman married in 1989 and went on to welcome three children together: Holly, Sam, and the late Clare Sarah, who died at 4-days-old after being born three months prematurely.

Here's everything to know about Richard Branson's wife Joan Templeman.

Templeman worked near Branson’s recording studio

The entrepreneur first met Templeman near The Manor, his former recording studio at Virgin Records.

“She worked in an antiques shop called Dodo in Notting Hill, close to our Virgin office at Vernon Yard. One day, I hovered uncertainly outside the shop, then built up the courage to walk in. The shop sold old signs and advertisements, which I pretended to the shop owner, Liz, that I was fascinated by,” he said in his blog post. “Over the next few weeks, my visits to Joan amassed me an impressive collection of old hand painted tin signs, which advertised anything from Hovis bread to Woodbine cigarettes.”

Branson bought Necker Island as a grand gesture for Templeman

Just two years after they had first met, the business tycoon put an offer in for Necker Island as a tribute to Templeman.

“Upon hearing about a beautiful island in the British Virgin Islands up for sale, I called the people selling it to enquire. We were still in the early days of Virgin Records and I definitely did not have the cash to buy it - but try telling that to a fool in love!” he wrote in his blog post.

The realtor offered Branson a trip to see the island, and seeing it was the “second time I experienced love at first sight," he said.

Although his initial offer got rejected, Branson purchased the island for $180,000, and he still lives there currently.

Their children both got married on Necker Island

Eleven years after Branson purchased the island, he and Templeman wed on a beach there. Following in their parents’ footsteps, both Holly and Sam married their respective spouses there as well.

Holly and Freddie Andrews married in a sunset ceremony that took place in December 2011, while Sam wed Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe in March 2013.

Branson stopped a flight so he could see his wife

In a romantic gesture that rivals every single romantic-comedy, Branson once halted a flight when he realized he didn’t want to leave his wife behind.

“[We were] in Majorca [a few years ago] and I had to go on some sort of business thing and I left Joan behind in the airport,” he told Page Six during an interview. “As the plane was taxiing down the runway I suddenly thought, ‘I’ve got to stop this plane and go back and see her,’ so I jumped up, I went to the front of the plane and said ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to get out off the plane,’ and they did stop the plane. They did let me off.”

“I think she was pleasantly shocked,” he added, recalling that his fellow passengers applauded the grand gesture. “Yeah, it was good.”

She likes to stay out of the spotlight

Branson previously said that his wife doesn’t want to be in the public eye and avoids it as much as possible.

“From the beginning Joan was a very private person, and the over four decades we have been together she has remained so,” he wrote in a 2016 blog post. “She has always been keen to avoid the public eye, to the point that she has never given an interview, however, that just changed when she did her first ever interview for an upcoming film about my ballooning adventures.”

She was nervous about Branson’s voyage into space

On July 11, 2021, Branson headed to space on a Virgin Galantic flight, a journey that had been in development for 17 years.

In an interview with Rueters from Spacesport America prior to his yoyage, Branson admitted that his wife had reservations about her husband’s visit to outerspace.

“My wife is the sort of person who would be terrified on a Virgin Atlantic aeroplane. She’s the last person who would want to do something like this,” he said.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.