Jon Snows Family Dreams Shattered by Alzheimers

As 's longest-serving newsreader, Jon Snow was preparing for a change in pace when he retired in December 2021, at the age of 74.

Having just welcomed a baby boy with wife Precious Lunga – a Zimbabwean epidemiologist – the plan was to travel between Africa and the States, where Precious could continue her work in public health and Jon could look after their son Tafara.

Yet within weeks of Jon's last broadcast, his health began to deteriorate, and by 2023 he had been diagnosed with .

It came as a devastating blow to the newsreader, who had planned to use his retirement to spend quality time with his son and right the wrongs of his past.

In his 2005 memoir Shooting History, Jon expressed regret about being an absent father to his two daughters Leila and Freya (now in their 40s), and leaving their mother Madeleine, his former partner of 33 years, to look after them while he was off covering wars and revolutions.

When he married Precious in 2010 and welcomed a baby via  in 2021, the pair had hoped that parenthood might be different this time round and that, after retiring, Jon could be a hands-on father.

Now, Jon, 78, is doing all he can to spend time with his son, playing the piano and painting together, reading Tafara nightly bedtime stories and teaching him how to ride a bike.

Yet Precious, 51, revealed their son is aware that something is happening to his father and has become a little carer himself.

Speaking to the Daily Mail in , Precious revealed: 'When Jon is tired, he gets less coherent, so our son will say, "Dada, you need to rest."'

Precious added that she was aware that starting a family with a much older man was not without its risks but that she had not been prepared for his Alzheimer's diagnosis.

She explained: 'I work in the health field so I knew the statistics, but he was very active, he cycled everywhere and exercised, barely drank, was a healthy eater, and all these factors protect you against dementia.'

The couple's road to becoming parents had not been easy, marred by 'numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages', which resulted in using a surrogate.

Announcing the birth of his son in a statement back in March 2021, Jon said: 'In our desire to seal our now 11 years of marriage with a baby, my wife suffered numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages.

'Consequently, we will always be deeply grateful to our surrogate, who carried our embryo to term.

'Amid these challenging times, we feel doubly blessed to be able to celebrate our good fortune.'

Jon had embraced becoming a father in his 70s, telling Saga Exceptional in 2023: 'There are three very small people in my life – two grandsons, aged one and three, and a son, Tafara, who is two going on five.

'Having him was not easy but we persisted because, at 48, my wife is a good deal younger than me, and she very much wanted and deserved a baby.

'When he was born, life felt complete. I'm at complete ease with late fatherhood. I don't feel I'll drop him, I don't feel exhausted.

'I haven't found age relevant to my relationship with my son or grandsons. Is being a grandad different to being a dad? Not really. In the end, it's all love, isn't it?'

Jon married Precious in March 2010 on the Caribbean island of Mustique, the exclusive hangout of the rich and famous.

The ceremony was conducted at the £800-a-night Firefly Hotel, which has hosted guests including rocker Mick Jagger, royal Zara Phillips and actors Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant.

By this point, the pair had been together for nine years, having met when Jon was 53 and Precious was 26, but the couple dismissed critics of their age gap.

Jon said her 'mental age' was far higher than his, saying: 'She's very, very mature. I mean, she's a serious boffin.'

Before meeting Precious, Jon had been in a 35-year relationship with human rights lawyer Madeleine Colvin, with whom he has his two daughters.

He was also briefly engaged to one of his ITN colleagues, TV presenter Anna Ford, but their relationship fizzled out after only four months.

Yet by his own admission, his relationships and family ties would often take a back seat to his work, which saw him travel the world while serving as Channel 4's respected anchorman.

Following his retirement, however, Jon confessed he was on the 'lookout for more work' after an 'abrupt' end to his journalism career.

He was not accustomed to a slower pace in life and his deterioration began almost immediately.

Without the stimulation of the newsroom, he sank into a deep depression and appeared to lose his appetite for life.

When it came to obtaining his Alzheimer's diagnosis, Precious was unsure how much the changes in her husband were down to his depression or something else.

But ten months after recording his last bulletin, Jon woke one morning and told her he was late for work, first raising Precious's suspicions.