Fiennes relatives say they cannot visit explorer amid family concerns

Relatives of British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes have told the BBC they are distressed that they appear unable to visit him or establish where he is living. The concerns were discussed in an interview with BBC Newsnight. Fiennes, 82, has not been seen in public for nearly two years, according to the report, and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2020.

It has been alleged that he was admitted to several care homes under assumed names after a family dispute involving his second wife, Louise Millington-Cotes. Millington-Cotes did not immediately respond to the allegations or the BBC’s request for comment. Cheshire Police said they were aware of concerns about Fiennes and were satisfied that he was living in an appropriate setting with suitable care.

The force said there were no immediate safeguarding concerns. His stepson, Alex Millington-Cotes, told the BBC that he wanted the power of attorney removed from his mother and placed with people who had Fiennes’s best interests in mind. He said it was painful to see Fiennes isolated.

Last week, Millington-Cotes launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund legal efforts to locate and safeguard the explorer. He said the campaign followed attempts through multiple avenues to find his stepfather. Arabella Pepper, the younger sister of Fiennes’s late first wife, said she had been unable to see him for more than a year.

She alleged that she saw him in July 2025 only after entering a care home where she had been told he was staying. Pepper said she told Fiennes that family and friends were worried and looking for him. According to her account, he asked her to send them his love and say that he was longing to see them.

Fiennes was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles by surface means in the early 1980s. Guinness World Records has described him as the world’s greatest living explorer.