John Clarke, husband of late RTÉ broadcaster Marian Finucane, dies aged 88

Sarah Slater

John Clarke, the husband of the late RTÉ broadcaster Marian Finucane, has died aged 88.

He died on Wednesday morning and is survived by his four sons.

Mr Clarke and Ms Finucane spent more than 30 years together and married in 2015, five years before her death aged 69 on January 2nd, 2020.

The couple had just returned from a holiday in India when he found her dead in their Co Kildare home.

Mr Clarke had three sons from this first marriage, Jocelyn, Neil and Timothy, and then he and Ms Finucane had two children, Sinéad and Jack. Sinéad died in 1990 from leukaemia.

The couple first met when Ms Finucane was 20 years old and he was aged 34.

Mr Clarke, who worked in advertising and property, wrote a memoir titled Finucane & Me: My Life with Marian in 2023 and featured in an RTÉ documentary called Marian.

Speaking at her funeral he described her as "my Marian, the woman I loved for 40 years" who "made the colours brighter, the world a bit easier to live in.

"We were like two 15-year-old adolescents addicted to each other and who had forgotten to grow up. We had a lot of things to say and to do in life. I find myself so powerless."

Mr Clarke revealed in October 2023 that he had been diagnosed with cancer.

He told RTÉ's Miriam O'Callaghan that he had started treatment and was hopeful.