The Truth About Jane Goodall's Two Marriages

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Prolific primatologist Dame Jane Goodall spent her life hand in hand with chimpanzees. A vocal advocate for wildlife and its preservation, it was clear that, up until her death on October 1, 2025, Goodall's love and devotion remained with the animal kingdom. Despite her all-consuming career, Goodall fell in actual human love twice. Her first marriage to photographer Hugo van Lawick fizzled out; nonetheless, she still pondered the what-ifs. Her second marriage, this time to Derek Bryceson, sadly ended when the Tanzania national parks director died in 1980. After such a loss, the anthropologist never remarried. However, Goodall opened up about both of her marriages before her death at 91.

In a May 2025 episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast — one of Goodall's final interviews — she discussed everything from her contempt for President Donald Trump to her former marriage to van Lawick, which lasted 10 years (1964-1974) and produced a son. Goodall recounted to host Alex Cooper that she met van Lawick when he visited the Gombe Stream National Park as a National Geographic photographer seeking to do a feature on Goodall's work with chimpanzees. Although hesitant to welcome him into her sacred environment for fear that he would ruin her progress with the chimps, Goodall and van Lawick "got along fine" after she discovered his own deep love for animals. "It was thanks to his photos and film that everything I was saying was corroborated," she said.

While perfect on paper, their marriage was far more complicated in practice. Since their careers took precedence, Goodall and van Lawick were rarely in the same place at the same time. And once National Geographic stopped funding van Lawick's trips to Tanzania, Goodall said that is when they decided to split. "I definitely wish we could've carried on with that marriage," she said, "because it was a good one."

After a disappointing end to her first marriage, Jane Goodall was fortunate to find love again with Derek Bryceson, a government official of Tanzania who served as the country's national parks director. The pair married in 1975 and lived a quiet life in Tanzania. In 1977, Bryceson told People that, "The ideal life would be to stay all year at Gombe, by the clear lake — far away from the city."

Sadly, in 1980, after five years of marriage, Bryceson died following a harrowing battle with cancer. In her New York Times bestseller, "The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times," Goodall wrote of her last moments with Bryceson, saying, "I will never forget his last words. He said, 'I didn't know such pain was possible.' I keep trying to forget what he said, but I can't."

Reflecting on her two marriages, the conservationist told People in 2020 that, while she feels her career wouldn't be as momentous as it was if it weren't for Hugo van Lawick and Bryceson, her husbands also brought complexities to her life, including jealousy. She asked herself, "How I could do it twice? I don't know."