Mystery has engulfed the fate of legendary British adventurer Ranulph Fiennes, after relatives and friends went public claiming he was missing and his wife was isolating him – with one reportedly even asking King Charles for help.
Fiennes, the first person to cross the Earth pole to pole in the early 1980s, was last seen publicly nearly two years ago, months after opening up about a Parkinson’s diagnosis he received years earlier.
Care homes
Last week, the Daily Telegraph reported the 82-year-old had been placed in a succession of care homes by his wife, Louise Millington-Cotes, who has allegedly put strict conditions on his care.
In a follow-up in its months-long probe, the newspaper said a care sector watchdog in Wales had concluded he was “unlawfully deprived of his liberty” when housed at a facility there earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Fiennes’s stepson, Alex Millington-Cotes, this week launched a crowdfunding campaign for legal fees to “locate and safeguard” him.
“You may have recently heard the deeply concerning news: Sir Ranulph Fiennes is missing,” he wrote online, adding he had “tried multiple avenues to find” him.
Calling Fiennes “a national treasure”, he described his stepfather as “a man of immense heart, kindness, and selflessness”.
Swiss-based ex-explorer and Fiennes collaborator Michael Kobold has joined the campaign to “help lift the veil of secrecy” around his whereabouts.
“My friend of almost 30 years has gone missing and nobody besides a tiny handful of individuals seems to want to do anything to change this disgraceful status quo,” he wrote in a lengthy blogpost this month.
‘Not well’
Ranulph Fiennes has long been a towering figure in exploration, acclaimed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “greatest living explorer”.
His epic 1979-1982 Transglobe Expedition saw him proclaimed the first person to visit both north and south poles by surface means.
He later became the first to cross Antarctica completely on foot and also ran seven marathons on seven continents within a week.
Hailing from one of the most storied families in England – which counts actors Joseph and Ralph Fiennes among its extended ranks – he has been friends with King Charles for decades.
His 34-year marriage to first wife Virginia ended with her death in 2004, and he wed Millington-Cotes the following year. The couple have a daughter and stepson.
In his last public appearance – a pre-recorded video played at an October 2024 Royal Geographic Society event – he read from an off-screen script apologising for not being “well enough” to attend, The Telegraph said.
The daily reports Millington-Cotes was granted lasting power of attorney that year and has become his legal guardian, placing Fiennes in care homes in London, Wales and then northwest England.
It claims she has refused to allow some friends to visit, while also insisting any visitors sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
King Charles ‘concerned’
Arabella McIntyre-Brown, Ranulph Fiennes’s former sister-in-law, last year checked herself into the London care home where he was living and made contact.
“He was lucid – personality intact, memory clear,” she told The Telegraph, adding he had stressed he wanted to see his friends.
However, after the visit Fiennes was moved and later placed in a Welsh home, according to the newspaper.
“It’s absurd,” McIntyre-Brown told the Telegraph. “It’s like we’d stumbled into a John Le Carre novel.”
The Welsh care-home owner told the paper Millington-Cotes had failed to provide the legally required paperwork designed to protect vulnerable adults, so sought advice from the industry’s regulator.
The Care Inspectorate of Wales responded in January that Fiennes was “being deprived of his liberty unlawfully” without the paperwork, it reported.
The Inspectorate told AFP “it would not be appropriate” to comment.
Meanwhile an old friend of Fiennes, Anton Bowring, claims he had contact with Buckingham Palace last year, when a staffer told him “the king was concerned for Fiennes”, the Telegraph said.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment to AFP. Millington-Cotes could not be reached for comment.
“It’s the extraordinary final chapter in a remarkable life,” Bowring told The Telegraph.
“I know he’s still out there, alive. But I’ve grieved for him. I’ve said goodbye.”
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse