Blanche d’Alpuget, the Australian writer whose relationship with former prime minister Bob Hawke became one of the country’s most closely followed love stories, has died aged 82.
Her death was announced by her family, who also shared a final message from the author: “Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
D’Alpuget and Hawke revisited their relationship in a 2017 interview with Charles Wooley for 60 Minutes, filmed at their home in Sydney. The programme explored the romance that began after the pair first met in Jakarta in 1970 and later reconnected when d’Alpuget interviewed Hawke for a biography.
By the late 1970s, their relationship had become an on-off affair while Hawke was still married to Hazel Hawke. D’Alpuget later said she realised the depth of his feelings in 1978, when Hawke was “madly in love” with her.
A light-plane crash in the Whitsundays became another defining moment. D’Alpuget recalled making a single telephone call to a mutual friend, asking him to tell Hawke that she had survived the crash. Hawke’s immediate response, she said, was: “Blanche has been in a plane crash.” He was then told she was safe.
The couple eventually married in 1995, after Hawke left Hazel following the end of his political career. During the interview, Hawke made clear how he viewed the relationship, agreeing that his love for d’Alpuget mattered more to him than being prime minister.
D’Alpuget, an acclaimed novelist and biographer, wrote a major biography of Hawke and remained his partner until his death in 2019. In later interviews, she described their relationship as a mature love that deepened during the final years of his life, when she cared for him at home.
