Joan Branson passed away at the age of 80. The entrepreneur shared the news online, bidding a touching farewell to his lifelong partner.

“With a shattered heart, I share that Joan, my wife and partner for 50 years, has passed away. She was the most wonderful mother and grandmother our children and grandchildren could ever wish for. She was my best friend, my rock, the light that guided me, my whole world. I will love you forever, Joan,” he wrote.

Joan, with whom Richard had two children, was long known as the billionaire’s “rock” and “source of wisdom.”

The couple married 11 years after they first met, in 1989, on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, when their children, Holly and Sam, were eight and four years old respectively.

Joan Branson was born in Glasgow in 1948 into a humble family. Her father worked as a ship carpenter to support her and her six siblings.