HAWKING'S FAMILY
Who are Stephen Hawking’s children Robert, Tim and Lucy and who are his siblings and parents?
STEPHEN Hawking and his first wife Jane Wilde had three children together during their 30-year marriage – but who are they?
Here's the story of the great scientist's family as they prepare for his funeral in Cambridge.
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Who are Stephen Hawking’s family?
Stephen Hawking married Jane Wilde, born in 1944, in 1965 after meeting at a party in 1962 and the couple went on to have three children.
The couple’s oldest child Robert was born in May 1967 and would help his mother take care of Stephen as his condition worsened.
He initially showed signs of being interested in science but later became a software engineer and currently works for Microsoft, living in Seattle with his wife and kids. They have a son and daughter.
Born in November 1970, Lucy studied French and Russian at Oxford University, spending time in Moscow.
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She went on to studying journalism at City University but later realised she did not want to make a career out of journalism but wanted to be a writer.
After two novels she focused on writing children’s books and published George’s Secret Key to the Universe, an adventure story written with her father Stephen.
She has published four other books following the adventures of George.
Lucy’s books are centred on the teaching of science and education to kids.
She married Alex Mackenzie Smith in 1998 but they divorced in 2004. She has a son named William.
Timothy was born in April 1979 and reports indicate he didn’t have a happy childhood compared to his siblings.
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Tim once said that his father losing his voice was ironically the time when he formed a close relation with him.
But it appears that after a cold start Stephen and Tim later bonded and would go to watch motor racing together.
In a BBC documentary, Timothy confessed how he used to programme swear words into his father’s speech machine and played pranks on him.
He graduated from Exeter University in Spanish and French and currently works for toy firm Lego as a loyalty executive.
There has been speculation as who fathered Tim - whether it was Stephen or Jane’s future husband Jonathan Hellyer Jones.
But in her autobiography Stephen's mother asked her son's first wife who the father was - with Jane replying that it could only be Stephen.
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Who are Stephen Hawking’s parents and siblings?
Stephen was born on January 8, 1942, to Frank and Isobel Hawking.
Despite the family’s relative poverty both attended Oxford University where Frank read medicine and Isobel studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
The couple met shortly after the beginning of the Second World War at a medical research institute where Isobel was working as a secretary and Frank was working as a medical researcher.
Frank became the head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research in 1950 and the family moved from Highgate in north London to St Albans.
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The family were reportedly rather eccentric and meals were often spent with each person silently reading a book. The family car was a converted London taxi.
Stephen had two younger sisters, Mary born in 1943 and Philippa in 1947 and a brother Edward who was adopted in 1956.
Stephen described Philippa in a Radio Times interview in 2013 as “a very intense and perceptive child, and I always respected her judgement and opinions.”
He said Edward was “very different from the other three children, being completely non-academic and non-intellectual, which was probably good for us.”
Stephen Hawking stars in an episode of cult American cartoon The Simpsons
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