Life became complicated after book success, says Hawking’s ex-wife

Stephen Hawking’s ex-wife has told how the physicist’s fame and success damaged their relationship.

The couple were married for 30 years from 1965, after they met while studying at Cambridge.

New movie The Theory Of Everything, which stars Eddie Redmayne and is being tipped for Oscar glory, is based on Hawking’s first wife Jane Wilde’s memoir, Travelling To Infinity.

Speaking about her then-husband’s growing success, after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, she told Radio Times: “The goddess physics was Stephen’s idol. I was not jealous of her but she did give me some cause for concern.

“Stephen would spend a whole weekend in his wheelchair... He wouldn’t take any notice of the children, or of me, and I would become very worried. Was he uncomfortable or ill, or had I upset him in some way?

“Then, on the Monday morning, he would look up and smile and say ‘I’ve solved that equation’. These were truly amazing achievements, because when he reached the stage where he could no longer write, he had to work out absolutely everything in his head.”

Wilde, who is played by Felicity Jones in The Theory Of Everything, added: “When he achieved fame, and the considerable fortune that A Brief History Of Time brought him after its publication in 1988, life became very complicated.

“I rather felt that the family had been left behind. To me, Stephen was my husband and the father of my children; one does not say to one’s husband ‘Oh, you’re so clever! I must worship the ground under your feet, or, in this case, wheels’.

“I found this kind of sycophantic attitude — the attitude adopted by so many people around Stephen — exceptionally frustrating and, of course, it grew a lot worse when we finally had to engage carers.”

After a “traumatic” end to the marriage, Hawking married carer Elaine Mason, but they, too, have since split.

“After Stephen’s second divorce, it became possible for us to communicate again,” said Wilde.