The Baby Death Horror that Shook Richard Branson’s Marriage

Friends have now said say the couple’s early tragedy in 1979 cast a shadow they carried for life.

Their love story, which began in 1976 when Branson first saw Templeman at The Manor, his Virgin Records studio, was marked by infatuation, persistence, and the agony of losing their first baby, Clare Sarah, after she was born three months prematurely.

Branson has spoken openly about the loss and its toll, calling it “horrendous,” and sources now tell us the trauma “rocked his marriage more than anyone ever knew.”

One longtime family acquaintance claimed: “The baby’s death changed everything for Richard and Joan. She was never quite the same afterwards, and it shook them to their core.”

A second source added: “They stayed devoted, but that loss was a wound underneath everything. It was the one thing money and fame could never fix.”

Branson first pursued Templeman, then 31, when he was 26, and she was working at an antiques shop in Notting Hill, London.

She was married at the time to her childhood sweetheart, Ronnie Leahy, but Branson admitted years later he “fell for Joan from the moment I saw her,” convinced she was, as he put it in 2020, “a down-to-earth Scottish lady” who would be immune to his antics.

He would earn the nickname “Tagalong” by chasing her for years before she finally gave him a chance.

In a 2019 interview, he said, “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’ – I would end up literally chasing.”

Branson even pretended to be shopping for an island, so Templeman would join him on a trip to Necker Island, which he later bought and where he still lives.

Their romance quickly turned serious, and by 1979, they were expecting their first child. Clare Sarah’s premature birth and death within days left them shattered.

Branson said in 2009: “We were hoping and praying that the hospital would keep her alive, but it wasn’t to be.”

Friends say Templeman “never recovered from it,” and that Branson privately confided the loss was “the darkest chapter” of their life together.

The pair later welcomed daughter Holly in 1981 and son Sam in 1985.

Eleven years after Templeman’s divorce, she and Branson married on Necker Island in 1989, remaining partners through global fame, business crises, and family milestones.

Branson once wrote: “I experienced love at first sight upon meeting a blonde-haired, down-to-earth, Scottish beauty named Joan.”

Marking her 80th birthday last July, he said: “Thank you for being by my side through it all – the highs, the lows, and all those quiet, content, and peaceful moments in between.”

Announcing her death, Branson wrote: “Heartbroken to share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away. She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for. She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world. Love you forever, Joan x.”