The baby death horror that rocked Richard Branson’s marriage

Friends now say the couple’s early tragedy in 1979 cast a shadow they carried with them all their lives.

Their love story, which began in 1976 when Branson first saw Templeman at The Manor, his Virgin Records studio, was marked by infatuation, perseverance and the pain 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 “terrible,” and sources now tell us the trauma “rocked his marriage more than anyone ever knew.”

An old family acquaintance claimed: ‘The baby’s death changed everything for Richard and Joan. She was never quite the same after that, and it shook them to their core.”

A second source added: “They remained committed, 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 in an antique shop in Notting Hill, London.

She was married to her high school sweetheart Ronnie Leahy at the time, but Branson admitted years later that he “fell for Joan from the moment I saw her,” convinced that 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 pursuing 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 happen, it won’t necessarily happen. I think you have to be willing to subtly pursue someone if you’re really interested.” With my own wife, I was known as ‘Tagalong’ – I would literally end up hunting.”

Branson even pretended to be looking 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 in 1979 they were expecting their first child. Clare Sarah’s premature birth and death within days left them shattered.

Branson said in 2009: “We hoped and prayed that the hospital would keep her alive, but it was not to be.”

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

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

Eleven years after divorcing Templeman, she and Branson married on Necker Island in 1989 and remained partners despite worldwide fame, business crises and family milestones.

Branson once wrote, “I experienced love at first sight when I met a blond-haired, down-to-earth, Scottish beauty named Joan.”

On the occasion of 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: “It is with a heavy heart to share that Joan, my wife and partner of 50 years, has passed away. She was the most wonderful mother and grandmother our children and grandchildren could ever ask for. She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world. I love you forever, Joan x.”