Stephen Hawking's heartbreaking biggest regret is nothing to do with his work
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Mark Thomas/NASA Photo/Alamy Stock Photo
Stephen Hawking managed to achieve a great deal during his 76 years on Earth, but his one big regret was nothing to do with his work.
Hawking, who passed away in 2018, was a world-renowned scientist and author whose life’s work centred on theoretical physics and cosmology - particularly black holes and the discovery of Hawking radiation.
In 1963, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - a type of motor neurone disease - and was warned by doctors that he had just two-years to live.
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He managed to completely defy the initial prognosis, but his ability to move and communicate continued to deteriorate, and he later communicated using an advanced computer system.
Back in 2015, he featured in a BBC documentary alongside comedian Dara Ó Briain, who was able to gain incredible insight to the genius’ life.
At the time, he told the TV Times that Hawking had told him about his biggest regret, admitting he felt ‘moved’ by the admission.
He recalled: “I got to see him five or six times, both at his Cambridge home and at work. I also met Lucy and Tim, who’re two of his three children [Stephen’s eldest child, Robert, lives in America].
“Stephen told me that his biggest regret was not being able to physically play with his children when they were little because of his illness and I was happy that he was prepared to be that honest with me, because he had no reason to be.
“But I suppose when you’re choosing your words as carefully as he does, why waste them on waffle?”
Ó Briain continued: “I was moved and I told him that. They all get along very well as a family and I enjoyed asking him the normal dad-to-dad questions. He played board games with them as children and wouldn’t let them win!
“There’s a gorgeous piece of footage in the documentary of Stephen as a younger man with his kids hanging off his wheelchair and him wheeling them around his garden.”
He said the thing that struck him most about Hawking was the he was a ‘normal guy’.
“We tend to think of him in terms of these two extremes, either the crippling illness or the fact that he has the ‘greatest mind in the world’,” he explained.
"But there’s a moment where you get past the chair and him as an icon and he becomes this normal guy with a messy life, who’s an enthusiastic host and someone who’s used his fame to do fun things like going into zero gravity.”