Jane Goodall, 91, Reveals Why Her First Marriage Ended After 10 Years: 'It Slowly Drifted Apart'
Jane Goodall is opening up about her previous marriage to late National Geographic photographer Hugo van Lawick.
During an appearance on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy, the 91-year-old primatologist said she first met van Lawick while studying chimpanzees.
Goodall, the world’s top expert on wild chimpanzees, said National Geographic sent out van Lawick after learning she “was finding out exciting things about the chimps” during her research in Africa.
“They wanted to make a film and they wanted good photographs, so they sent Hugo van Lawick and I really didn’t want him to come,” she explained. “I hadn’t met him because I just wanted to be there with the chimps, you know. I didn’t want anybody and I was afraid they’d be scared of him and, you know, all my hard work would be undone.”
American Broadcasting Companies via Getty
Africa – 1976: Hugo Van Lawick appearing on the ABC tv special ‘Jane Goodall and the World of Animal Behavior: The Lions of the Serengeti’
Soon, Goodall learned that van Lawick “loved animals” and “always wanted to be out there with them.” So, he used photography as a “route” to explore his passion, she said.
“We got on fine,” Goodall explained, adding that “it was thanks to his photos and film that everything I was saying about the chimps was corroborated.”
“And so he really, really helped to share the knowledge that chimpanzees really are like us,” she continued. “They really do have gestures and postures the same as ours that mean the same thing.”
Goodall and van Lawick, who died in June 2002, were married for a decade from 1964 to 1974. The couple had one child, son Hugo Eric Louis, 58.
As Cooper noted, Goodall previously said she and van Lawick began drifting apart as their careers moved in different directions.
Goodall said her relationship with van Lawick “ended gradually,” especially after National Geographic stopped paying him to come to Gombe in Tanzania, where she was studying the chimps.
Call Her Daddy/Instagram
Jane Goodall on Call her Daddy
“He had to go on with his career and he got some money to do films on the Serengeti, and I couldn’t leave Gombe,” Goodall recalled. “I had to stay… I couldn’t leave Gombe, and so it slowly drifted apart. And it was sad.”
Ultimately, Goodall felt she and van Lawick “did the right thing” by ending their relationship, adding that they “kind of had to do it.”
“I definitely wish we could have carried on with that marriage because it was a good one,” she noted.
Read the original article on People
I’m DJ Kamal Mustafa, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of EMEA Tribune, a digital news platform that focuses on critical stories from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. With a deep passion for investigative journalism, I’ve built a reputation for delivering exclusive, thought-provoking reports that highlight the region’s most pressing issues.
I’ve been a journalist for over 10 years, and I’m currently associated with EMEA Tribune, ARY News, Daily Times, Samaa TV, Minute Mirror, and many other media outlets. Throughout my career, I’ve remained committed to uncovering the truth and providing valuable insights that inform and engage the public.
