Remembering Joan: Lady Branson, the Ship Carpenter’s Daughter Who Became Sir Richard’s ‘Constant Rock’

Joan Branson, who died on Tuesday aged 80, acted as a supportive ‘rock’ to billionaire husband Sir Richard during their 49-year relationship – not just in their personal life but in the Virgin tycoon’s business ventures.

Just this month, days before his beloved wife’s death, the businessman posted a photograph, showing him kissing his her head and the words: ‘Everyone needs a Joan in their life.’

And Sir Richard had the ‘beautiful, witty, down-to-earth’ Scotswoman in his from the days when Virgin Records was a mere sapling, with just a few clients to its name.

The pair met in 1976 at The Manor, a live-in recording studio for the company, three years after Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells launched Virgin into the public consciousness, eventually selling around 15million copies worldwide.

Still, the business remained a safe haven for niche progressive rock acts and would not branch out into more mainstream genres until it jumped on the punk train the following year with the signing of the Sex Pistols.

If Virgin’s world remained settled, Sir Richard’s had been turned upside down, the business magnate later admitting he ‘fell in love’ with Joan the moment he laid eyes on her in the studio as she made a cup of tea.

After finding out she worked at a nearby ‘bric-a-brac shop’ in Westbourne Grove, he set about wooing her, demonstrating the relentless persistence he has shown over the course of five decades in business.

In a 2015 blog celebrating her 70th birthday, Sir Richard said: ‘A blonde-haired, down-to-earth, Scottish beauty who didn’t suffer fools, Joan was unlike any other women I had ever met.

‘To win her heart, I had to persistently hang around the shop and buy countless objects before we started courting.’

Born Joan Templeman in Glasgow, Scotland in 1945, she had hailed from humble beginnings with her father working as a ship carpenter to support her and her six siblings. 

From the beginning, despite her husband’s fame, she remained a very private person, keen to avoid the public eye and rarely gave an interview.

Sir Richard would have his work cut out to win her affections and spent a small fortune in her shop before they became an item. 

The haul included trinkets galore including a ‘Now, that’s what I call music’ sign that would later inspire the record company’s best-selling compilation records. 

When struggling for a name for the special records, Sir Richard is said to have looked at his wall and spotted the slogan, at which point he knew he had struck gold. 

In a 2020 blog post, he wrote: ‘I often make up my mind about someone within 30 seconds of meeting them, and I fell for Joan almost from the moment I saw her. 

‘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.’

This was just the start. Once their relationship kicked off later that year, Sir Richard’s quest to impress his Scottish beau led him to purchase an entire island. 

The mogul revealed he had only bought Necker Island to wow Joan after he managed to wangle an all-expenses-paid trip to see the idyllic retreat in the late 70s.

If the couple flew over on helicopters and were greeted by a red carpet, they were sent ‘hitch-hiking’ back to the UK after Sir Richard’s low-ball offer of just $100,000 was swiftly rejected.

Sir Richard’s persistence paid off though in every sense; a year later he offered $180,000 after ‘begging and borrowing’ and the island was his. 

He then married Joan there 11 years later and the island is now thought to be worth hundreds of millions.

The pair were wed in 1989 when their two children, Holly and Sam, were eight and four. 

The couple had five grandchildren Artie, Etta (Holly’s children) and Lola, born to Holly and husband Fred, and Eva-Deia and Bluey Rafe Richard, born to Sam and wife Isabella.

Joan has remained by Sir Richard’s side as Virgin has shot from a promising record company to one of Britain’s most successful multinational conglomerates.

And this is no mere coincidence, with the billionaire frequently complimenting his wife for her business smarts as much as for her supportive traits as a wife.

Indeed, Sir Richard most commonly praises her as a ‘rock’ and ‘source of wisdom’. 

Marking the 45th anniversary of their meeting in west London in 2020, he said: ‘Far beyond record titles, I owe a lot to Joan….Joan has always been a steady source of wisdom and has played no small part in some of my better life decisions.’ 

In 2015, he had said: ‘As the saying goes, behind every man there’s a great woman.

‘Joan you are the greatest woman of all. Happy birthday and thank you for choosing to come on this adventure with me.’

Sir Richard summed up Joan’s vital impact on both sides of his life in his emotional farewell post on Tuesday, saying: ‘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’