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Friend claims Ranulph Fiennes wrote secret will at Everest base camp in 2008

Michael Kobold, a friend of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, told the Mail on Sunday the explorer wrote a sealed will at Everest base camp in 2008 after planning, then dropping, a divorce. The claim comes amid concern over Fiennes's whereabouts; police say no immediate safeguarding concerns have been identified.

3 outlets · 1L · 0C · 2R First reported Account updated
Image: Daily Mail
Image: Metro
Image: Daily Express

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The story, neutrally told

Mixed · 2Michael Kobold, a German watch entrepreneur and friend of Sir Ranulph Fiennes for 30 years, told the Mail on Sunday that the explorer wrote a will by hand in his tent at Everest base camp, the night before an unsuccessful summit bid in 2008. Right · 2Kobold said Fiennes gave him the sealed will in May 2008 with instructions to open it only after his death; Kobold says he still has it and does not know what it says. Mixed · 2Kobold also claims that two months earlier Fiennes had decided to divorce his second wife, Louise Millington-Cotes, and asked him to find a law firm and a PR specialist, fearing a split as acrimonious as Sir Paul McCartney's.

Right · 2According to Kobold, Millington-Cotes learned of the plan, spoke privately with her husband at their Exmoor farm, and Fiennes then said he could not go ahead with the divorce. Right · 1The legal status of the document is unclear: under English law a will needs two witnesses, and Kobold said he may have signed it but has no memory of doing so. Right · 1Fiennes, then 65, did not reach the summit in 2008 because of exhaustion, but succeeded the following year, becoming the oldest Briton to do so.

Mixed · 2The claims follow concern about Fiennes, now 82 and with Parkinson's disease, who has not been seen in public for around two years; he is reported to have been moved between care homes in London, Wales and Cheshire, in Wales under the name Robert Millington, with arrangements allegedly made by Millington-Cotes. Mixed · 2Friends including Bear Grylls, Ben Fogle, Joanna Lumley and Monty Don, his stepson Alexander Millington-Cotes and the journalist John Simpson have voiced concern, with calls for police and the Office of the Public Guardian to investigate. Right · 1Cheshire Constabulary's Detective Chief Superintendent Claire Jason said he is living in an 'appropriate setting' receiving 'suitable care', that no immediate safeguarding concerns have been identified, and asked that privacy be respected.

Right · 3Millington-Cotes was approached for comment by the Mail and has asked not to be contacted by the press; the claims are Kobold's and are unverified, and outlets differ on where Fiennes now is (a Shropshire farm, Cheshire, or unknown).

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left1 outlet

Framing
Metro presents the will as an allegation by a friend, hedged throughout ('alleged', 'claimed'), alongside worries about Fiennes's whereabouts.
Emphasis
Hedged attribution to Kobold, the disguise allegation (hat, sunglasses, gloves), John Simpson's comments.
Leaves out or plays down
Does not carry the police statement that no immediate safeguarding concerns were identified, nor Kobold's accounts of Millington-Cotes's treatment of Fiennes.
Charged language
“secret sealed will”
For example
“Sir Ranulph Fiennes wrote a secret sealed will during an unsuccessful expedition to Mount Everest, one of his close friends has alleged.” — Metro

Centre0 outlets

No centre outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Right2 outlets

Framing
The Mail leads with the exclusive interview and a domestic-drama angle, with Kobold's harsh account of the wife; the Express frames it as a deepening 'mystery' and adds the police response.
Emphasis
Kobold's allegations of controlling and humiliating behaviour (Mail); police statement, stepson and celebrity friends (Express).
Leaves out or plays down
The Express gives less on the wife's alleged role in the divorce episode and no response from her; the Mail does not carry the police statement.
Charged language
“shunted around”“mystery”“disappearance”
For example
“Louise subjected Ran to a ceaseless barrage of attacks, always humiliating him in front of me and other people. It was heartbreaking,” — Daily Mail
“Sir Ranulph Fiennes is thought to have drawn up his will during a trip to Everest after deciding to divorce his wife, as the mystery around his disappearance deepens.” — Daily Express