Joan Branson died following complications related to a back injury while she was in hospital.

What happened

• Joan Branson, wife of entrepreneur Richard Branson, had been hospitalized in England for treatment and recovery from a back injury.

• Richard Branson has described her passing as occurring “quickly and painlessly” while she was in hospital, after she had appeared to be in positive spirits earlier that day.

• Public reports characterize her death as resulting from complications associated with that back injury, rather than from a long-declared illness, and note that she was 80 years old.