Branson is the co-founder of Virgin Group, a global investment and venture capital firm. He shared the news via Instagram.
“She was the most wonderful mum and grandmum our kids and grandkids could have ever wished for,” Branson wrote. “She was my best friend, my rock, my guiding light, my world. Love you forever, Joan x.”
Just yesterday, Branson shared a picture of the two captioned, “Love this photo of Joan.” Earlier in November, he said, “Everyone needs a Joan in their life.”
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Branson and Templeman met when she was working in a ‘bric-a-brac’ shop in London. In an article on the Virgin Group website titled “Behind every man there’s a great woman,” Branson said “I fell in love with her from the first moment I saw her.”
“To win her heart, I had to persistently hang around the shop and buy countless objects before we started courting,” Branson wrote, adding that his favorite was an advertising sign for Danish bacon.
Two years later, Branson bought Templeman an island in the British Virgin Islands.
“We were still in the early days of Virgin Records and I definitely did not have the cash to buy it—but try telling that to a fool in love!” Branson wrote in a blog on their 44 year anniversary.
Necker Island, as it was named, is where the couple married in 1989. Their two kids, Holly and Sam, followed suit and were each wed there, too.
Holly serves as Virgin’s chief purpose and vision officer, and Sam is a co-founder of HiddenLight Productions, along with Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton. Both are co-founders of Big Change, a charitable trust under Virgin Unite.
The cause of Templeman’s death has not been disclosed.
What is it about CEOs and their intense — and often oddball — workout routines?
These days, some top corporate honchos take their exercise rituals to extremes. Consider Damola Adamolekun, chief executive officer of restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s, who recently told Fortune magazine that he wakes up each day at 4:30 a.m. and runs seven to eight miles. He explained that the routine stimulates his nervous system and sets the tone for the day ahead. “You’ll feel better the whole day; you’ll be smarter, you’ll be sharper, you’ll be more energetic,” he said.
Adamolekun is in good company when it comes to training hard. Here are how five other executives work up a sweat and aim to stay healthy.
Jack Dorsey, head of Block and co-founder of Twitter, walks an hour and 15 minutes every day.
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Jack Dorsey
The Twitter co-founder, who now heads the tech conglomerate Block SQ, +3.36%, does it all: two-hour meditations, fasting — he has said he eats only once a day during the week and has almost no food on the weekends — and alternating saunas and ice baths. But he’s no gym rat: Dorsey gets his primary exercise by walking an hour and 15 minutes every day. “I might look a little bit more like I’m jogging than I’m walking. It’s refreshing … It’s just this one of those take-back moments where you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m alive!’” he once observed.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg takes his dog for frequent runs — good exercise for both him and his pooch.
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Mark Zuckerberg
The Meta Platforms META, +1.09%
chief isn’t one to get up at the crack of dawn, according to GQ, but he still runs three mornings a week. “I also try to take my dog running whenever I can, which has the added bonus of being hilarious because that’s basically like seeing a mop run,” he told GQ. As for diet, he once was said to experiment with an eating plan that involved only devouring animals he had killed himself — including chickens, goats and pigs. But he also apparently skips meals — or at least he said as much in a 2021 Facebook post. “Do you ever get so excited about what you’re working on that you forget to eat meals?” he asked.
Richard Branson takes off on another kite-surfing adventure.
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Richard Branson
Kite surfing, anyone? The founder of the Virgin Group swears by it as one of his favorite ways to stay fit, according to Men’s Health. He once even kite surfed across the English Channel. His other activities include tennis and biking. He’ll work with a trainer if he’s on the road, but otherwise he likes to exercise outdoors on his private island in the British Virgin Islands. “I just want to be sure that when I’m 150, my body still looks as good as it is today,” said Branson, who is now 72.
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp works out by cross-country skiing — and says the key is to take it as slowly as possible to build your “cardio base.”
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Alex Karp
The head of software company Palantir Technologies takes advantage of the fact that he lives near the White Mountains of New Hampshire to have a regular cross-country skiing routine. Key to his approach, he told Axios, is taking it slow on the snow. “To run like a deer, you have to spend 90% of your time running like a snail,” he explained, adding that his unhurried pace “builds a cardio base.” He also includes tai chi and stretching to his routine. But he isn’t too fussy about his diet. “If I’m traveling and someone has a really nice Danish, I enjoy every minute of eating it,” he said.
Martha Stewart is one of the cover models for Sport Illustrated’s new swimsuit issue.
Sports Illustrated
Martha Stewart
The 81-year-old lifestyle entrepreneur and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been in the spotlight for her recent cover appearance on Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. So what does she do to stay in shape for beach season? Stewart swears by Pilates, according to various media reports. And she rides horses. She has also said she doesn’t smoke, eats very well and every morning drinks a glass of “green juice” made with pears, cucumbers, celery stalks, parsley, fresh ginger and two oranges (complete with peels), a recipe she calls “so spectacular.”
