Sarah Kennedy, 46, is a popular TV presenter and broadcaster who currently hosts ‘The Dawn Patrol’, an early-morning programme on Radio 2 (her two non-fiction best-sellers, ‘Terrible Twos’ and ‘Terrible Pets’, were inspired by stories sent in by listeners to the show) She is single and lives in London and Warwickshire. Lee Durrell, 47, is the honorary director of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. She took over this role after the death of her husband, the naturalist Gerald Durrell (whom she met while studying lemurs in Madagscar), and now co-ordinates the Trust’s internationally renowned conservation projects from her apartment in the middle of Jersey Zoo
Sarah kennedy: I first met Lee professionally; it was about 1983, and Gerry and Lee Durrell were guests on a TV show I was hosting. Gerry was obviously a domineering personality, but they counteracted each other very well, and I thought Lee was an exceedingly intelligent, attractive woman, with a lovely soft Memphis accent. I remember thinking: “What a lovely couple of guests” – but never in my wildest dreams did I think that Lee and I’d end up sharing a flat together.
I then did Animal Roadshow with Desmond Morris for the BBC, followed by Animal Country for ITV. When we were looking for somewhere to do our Animal Country awards (for people who we felt had devoted their lives to animals), the obvious place to set the award-giving ceremony was on Jersey.
We went to Gerry and Lee’s home at the Jersey Wildlife Trust and had a very formal dinner. Desmond and Gerry were the same age, coming up to their late sixties, and Lee and I were the same age. It was a very, very nice evening.The next time we went back, the following year, I remember the two old chaps sitting there gassing away. I was going through a rather emotional time, with the break-up of a long-term love affair, and I went into the kitchen and Lee and I shared a glass of wine and I stirred the sauce, and we just talked – about men, life, living, gorillas, Madagascar. I felt so comfortable with her.I instinctively knew, right from the beginning, that she’s a very private person, like me.
When Gerry got very ill she stayed in a hotel next door to his hospital in south London, not far from me. I offered her my spare room, but I don’t think she wanted to take it up at that time Then one day I had a call; she sounded very flat. She said: “I’d really like to take you up on that room.” So she moved in.I’ll never forget when I opened the door: she really looked like a waif and stray, her hair was all over the place and she looked terribly tired. She’d been living out of a suitcase, so it was so nice just to be able to say: “There’s your room and there’s a bathroom opposite.” We sat and had a glass of wine, and I gave her the keys to the flat. I said: “I’m going to leave you to it, I won’t cook for you, but somebody does a supermarket shop for me – just add to the list”, and she just entered into the spirit of the house. She’d find me at 4pm in bra and pants, or in a gown, and I’d find her in rollers in the morning listening to Radio 2.She, being a Memphis belle, likes everything very, very warm, so at first she’d go round jacking up my night-storage heaters, and I’d go round jacking them down again and opening windows (I call her the Lodger from Hell, and I’m the Landlady from Hell) Then it fell into a little routine. If possible every evening we would rendezvous on The Rug (as it became known).
I’d light the fire and crack open a bottle of white wine for her, red for me And we’d play a Jimmy Buffett tape. We only had about half an hour – if we were very lucky, three-quarters – before her regular mini-cab would come to take her to see Gerry in hospital at about 8pm.She was marvellous, she never missed a visit. I only went and saw Gerry once she’d taken him back to Jersey for the last time. I said I didn’t want to go, because I’m not very good at things like that (I don’t go to funerals, I don’t like hospitals), but she insisted.
He looked wonderful because he had incredibly blue eyes, like the sea in Corfu, where he was brought up – and these great orbs looked out, so clear and fresh, and he gave me a lovely beam. I think I was able to say: “I’ll look after her.”We really are good friends. We trust each other, you see; there’s an innate trust, an empathy. She is a very busy woman, but sometimes I think, oh I must ring Lee, then the phone rings and it’s her So there’s a rapport. She’s rung me a couple of times and I’ve said, “How are you feeling?” and she’s said: “I’m terribly busy, but I’m lonely in my soul.”It’s a very deep friendship If anything happened to her, I’d be distraught.
