Blanche d’Alpuget, the acclaimed Australian writer and widow of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.
According to ABC News, d’Alpuget died on Wednesday following complications from influenza.
Before her death, the celebrated author left a final message for her loved ones, asking them to share her words:
“Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another.”
Her family said d’Alpuget would be remembered as a woman who lived fearlessly and embraced life with enthusiasm.
“We will miss her force, her humour, her curiosity and her love beyond measure,” the family said in a statement.
D’Alpuget is survived by her son, Louis Pratt, from her first marriage, her granddaughter Sienna, Hawke’s three children and several step-grandchildren.
Born and raised as an only child in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, d’Alpuget began her career in journalism before travelling extensively and living in England, France, Indonesia and Malaysia.
She returned to Australia at the age of 30 and established herself as a novelist, with much of her work examining themes of power, politics and human relationships.
Her 1977 biography of Sir Richard Kirby, an Australian arbitrator, academic and diplomat, earned critical acclaim. She later turned to historical fiction, producing a five-part series centred on King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their rise to power, as well as the complex dynamics within their family.
Throughout her career, d’Alpuget received numerous literary honours, including the PEN Golden Jubilee Award, The Age Book of the Year and the Australasian Prize for Commonwealth Literature.
Her relationship with Bob Hawke
D’Alpuget was perhaps best known for her biography of Bob Hawke, the former Australian prime minister who would later become her husband.
The pair first met in Jakarta in 1970 before reconnecting years later, when Hawke, then prime minister, commissioned d’Alpuget to write his biography.
Hawke later acknowledged that their romantic relationship had begun before his divorce from his first wife, Hazel Hawke, in 1995. He and d’Alpuget married later that year.
Their relationship attracted considerable public scrutiny and initially created tensions with Hawke’s children. In the years before his death in 2019, however, Hawke said he was grateful that relations between his family and d’Alpuget had begun to improve.
D’Alpuget remained active in public life in her later years. In November 2025, she appeared on ABC’s Nightlife, where she reflected on the turbulent journey of her public image and her life and relationship following Hawke’s death.
Tributes from Australia
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led tributes to d’Alpuget, describing her as a distinctive and unforgettable Australian figure.
“Australia has lost a true one-off,” Albanese said.
“Blanche’s novels were compelling works of verve and originality, and her biographies comprehensive and definitive — most famously those she wrote of Bob Hawke, who became her great love and ultimately her husband.”
Albanese also described d’Alpuget’s final message about love as “fitting” and extended his condolences to her family and loved ones.
Biographer Troy Bramston, who interviewed d’Alpuget extensively while researching his biography of Hawke, remembered her as a vibrant and larger-than-life personality.
“Blanche was larger than life, fun and vivacious, and a very talented writer,” he said.
