The stepson of Sir Ranulph Fiennes has accused the explorer’s second wife of exerting a controlling influence over him for more than 20 years.
Alex Millington-Cotes claims his mother, Louise, “dominated” their relationship from the beginning of their marriage, which took place barely a year after the death of Sir Ranulph’s first wife.
Other friends and a business associate independently described a similar situation to The Mail On Sunday. One said Sir Ranulph had spoken of being “only ever allowed 24 hours at a time away from her”.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Millington-Cotes said he was determined to locate his 82-year-old stepfather, who has Parkinson’s disease and has not been seen in public for more than two years, in an effort to “restore his free will”.
He has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund legal action after reports last week claimed that Sir Ranulph had been registered under a false name by his wife and transferred between several care homes.
The Care Inspectorate reportedly concluded earlier this year that Sir Ranulph had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty.
Family members and friends called for an investigation into his circumstances this weekend. Damian Hinds, the Shadow Health and Care Secretary, said “any potential failings” involving the care watchdog and the Office of the Public Guardian should be “looked into”.
Mr Millington-Cotes’s crowdfunding page features a photograph of him with his stepfather beside the Leaning Tower of Pisa in June 2018, their last holiday together. He said they last met in late 2024 and spoke by telephone 18 months ago.
Mr Millington-Cotes, 31, said: “I believe my mother exerted a controlling influence from the very start of their marriage. I was a child and didn’t recognise the signs then. But controlling is how I would describe it. His friends have confirmed how much he changed.”
He added: “My own relationship with her has been difficult for a very long time, longer than I can remember. I’ve obviously got my father and I’ve got Ran, and it has been complicated. There has been separation at various times.”
Ranulph Fiennes is pictured exploring in Antarctica in 1996. His stepson is determined to find the 82-year-old.
Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his wife Lady Louise after returning to Britain following a failed attempt to climb Everest.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes with his stepson Alex Millington at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy in June 2018.
“The divide came in 2018, when she began to be quite unpleasant towards me, both directly and indirectly, including behind my back.”
“There’s now no real way for me to contact my mother. She has blocked my phone number and Facebook page on and off since 2018.”
“Estranged is the right word. She kicked me out. It has been tougher than words can say.”
Sir Ranulph’s life is the stuff of adventure fiction. The former soldier and SAS demolitions expert became the first man to reach both the North and South Poles on foot, as well as the first person to cross Antarctica on foot.
Frequently hailed as the world’s greatest living explorer, he once ran seven marathons in seven days across seven continents, demonstrating the extraordinary endurance that has defined his career.
After undergoing a double heart bypass in 2003 and suffering a heart attack two years later, he climbed Mount Everest in 2009 at the age of 65.
Mr Millington-Cotes was ten when his mother, then 38, married Sir Ranulph in 2005. The explorer was 23 years older than her. For a time, the couple lived at Greenlands, the sprawling hill farm near the Exmoor village of Exford that Sir Ranulph had shared with his first wife, Ginny.
Tucked into the fold of a remote valley, the property was sold to a land investment company in 2007.
The couple later moved to Shropshire where Mrs Millington-Cotes bred horses. However, Sir Ranulph retained rights of access to his old home and would pay fleeting visits.
In 2015, he agreed to meet a business associate there to discuss a project involving use of his personal photographs.
The man, who has asked not to be named, told The Mail On Sunday that although Sir Ranulph was enthusiastic about the meeting, he was obsessed with leaving on time for the long drive back to Cheshire where Mrs Millington-Cotes was waiting.
Ranulph Fiennes is pictured in a snow hut in Antarctica in 1979
King Charles is seen here meeting the explorer in London in 2012 as they share a joke at The Coldest Journey launch on board the SA Agulhas, the ship for Sir Ranulph’s polar expedition to be the first to cross Antarctica in winter
‘It was bizarre,’ the man recalled. ‘I arrived mid-afternoon to look through his photos, which were all stored at the Exmoor house.
‘He immediately told me he hoped our discussions weren’t going to take long. He apparently needed to get away because he had to drive up to Cheshire that evening.
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‘I pointed out that there were hundreds of photos to assess but he was insistent. He said he had to get back because his wife only allowed him 24 hours away. He wasn’t joking.
‘Later I discovered he obeyed the same rule at speaking engagements to promote his books. Publishers would offer to put him up in a hotel afterwards but he preferred to sleep in his car to get back to Cheshire faster.’
According to one of his oldest friends on Exmoor, Mrs Millington-Cotes alienated herself from locals within months of the wedding.
‘She began pushing out the long-serving staff, he said. ‘These were loyal people, fond of Ran, even friends of his. They couldn’t understand why they were being so badly treated.
‘Ran was absolutely devoted to Ginny so when she died, and he promptly married Louise, it was pretty obviously done on the rebound from his grief.
‘Plenty of eyebrows were raised at the time but we all wanted him to find happiness again and hoped it would work out. Now it’s pretty clear that she just took over and controlled every aspect of his life. All his old friends were frozen out.’
Mrs Millington-Cotes was reportedly granted lasting power of attorney over Sir Ranulph in 2024. Since then he has been moved between a series of care homes in London, Cheshire and Wales. One care home manager was so troubled by Mrs
Millington-Cotes’s instructions to staff that he reported her to the Office of the Public Guardian.
Three other people have also asked the watchdog to intervene, apparently without success.
The owner of the care home in Wales raised the issue with the Care Inspectorate of Wales, which confirmed in an email obtained by a newspaper that: ‘[Sir Ranulph] is being deprived of his liberty unlawfully… He is not free to leave and not able to consent to care, treatment and accommodation.’
The care home owner told the MoS on Saturday that Sir Ranulph never talked about his second wife, only Ginny, his late first wife.
On the night he arrived at the home, the owner gleaned an insight into their relationship.
‘He said something and she snapped at him to tell him off. We were taken aback, and he just winked and smiled and looked over as if to say, ‘Don’t worry. She’s going in a minute. I know what she’s like.’
The owner also said Sir Ranulph was not allowed to watch anything to do with the Antarctic, the North Pole or Everest because his wife said it would upset him.
Speaking to The Times, the operator of the care home described Sir Ranulph as frail and occasionally confused, but said he still showed flashes of the iron will that had made him one of the world’s best-known explorers.
Sir Ranulph had been admitted to the home under the name Robert Millington. The home was initially told that its prospective resident was a former SAS soldier whose identity needed to be concealed because his life was under threat.
It was only when senior staff later met Mrs Millington-Cotes that she disclosed that ‘Robert Millington’ was Sir Ranulph. She claimed extremists might target her husband if his identity and whereabouts became known.
Sir Ranulph was not allowed to watch anything to do with the Antarctic, the North Pole or Everest
Mr Millington-Cotes said: ‘My suspicion is that my stepfather is back at home with my mother’
After walks, Sir Ranulph would sometimes ask to sit in the home’s sun lounge, chatting to residents unaware of his identity. ‘To this day, none of them knew who they were talking to,’ the home’s operator said.
Mr Millington-Cotes has now secured the backing of some of Britain’s most revered explorers, including Bear Grylls, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Ben Fogle and Robin Hanbury-Tenison. All have spoken out publicly on the need for Sir Ranulph’s whereabouts to be established and his liberty restored.
Mr Millington-Cotes said: ‘My suspicion is that my stepfather is back at home with my mother.
‘I believed he was last in a care home in Cheshire. I went there last Monday and the staff were very sheepish when I said who I was. There was a flurry of people rushing about, so that was interesting.
‘The aim of the crowdfunding page is to raise £55,000 to pay for legal action if necessary. Perhaps a court order to pull back the power my mother has over him so that she’s not able to make decisions – at least, not on her own.
‘I want to ensure his complete free will, the ability to walk outside, see whoever he wants.
‘At the moment the life he has is not in his best interests. I’ve come to realise that outside the hard shell of an SAS soldier he is a deeply caring person.’
Mrs Millington-Cotes has been contacted for comment.
- Mr Millington-Cotes’s GoFundMe page can be found here.