{"id":204079,"date":"2025-06-22T02:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T02:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/204079\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T02:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T02:52:15","slug":"husband-of-dame-deborah-james-finds-love-again-with-mystery-woman-three-years-after-cancer-campaigners-tragic-death-aged-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/204079\/","title":{"rendered":"Husband of Dame Deborah James finds love again with ‘mystery woman, three years after cancer campaigner’s tragic death aged 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before she died at the age of just 40, cancer<\/a> campaigner Dame Deborah James<\/a> told her husband he should ‘move on’ after she was gone and find love again.<\/p>\n

Now, Sebastien Bowen might have fulfilled her wish. Last week, he was spotted hand in hand with a beautiful ‘mystery’ woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair could be seen strolling on the towpath beside the Thames after enjoying a long, leisurely lunch at The River Cafe in Hammersmith, west\u00a0London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wearing an elegant red dress and sunglasses, the woman, who appeared to be in her 30s, gazed adoringly at Mr Bowen, 45.<\/p>\n

‘They looked like they were very much in love,’ a passer-by said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It was very sweet. For anyone who was inspired by Dame Deborah’s attitude to life, it was really heartening to see her husband looking happy again.’<\/p>\n

The River Cafe is the fashionable restaurant where Jamie Oliver began his career and the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Nigella Lawson have dined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sebastien <\/p>\n

Sebastien Bowen, 45, walks towards Barnes with a beautiful ‘mystery’ woman<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The pair were all as smiles as they were seen strolling on the towpath beside the Thames<\/p>\n

\"They <\/p>\n

They walked arm in arm before enjoying a long, leisurely lunch at The River Cafe in Hammersmith, west London<\/p>\n

\"Dame <\/p>\n

Dame Deborah James and Sebastien Bowen (pictured together) were married for around 14 years before\u00a0Deborah passed away in June 2022<\/p>\n

\"Dame <\/p>\n

\u00a0Dame Deborah died from bowel cancer in 2022 at 40, five years after her stage four diagnosis<\/p>\n

Last December, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Mr Bowen was dipping his toe in the dating scene.<\/p>\n

Friends said he had been on several dates as he attempted to rebuild his life following his wife’s death in June 2022.<\/p>\n

A source said: ‘It’s very early days for Seb and he’s taking things very slowly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Deborah is going to be a tough act to follow as they had a fantastic marriage and made a great couple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘But Seb feels the time has come for him to move on, as Deborah wanted him to.’<\/p>\n

Dame Deborah, who called herself ‘Bowelbabe’, raised more than \u00a311million for cancer research.<\/p>\n

\"Sebastien <\/p>\n

Sebastien and the ‘mystery’ women looked over the railings across the River Thames<\/p>\n

\"Friends <\/p>\n

Friends of Sebastien said he had been on several dates as he attempted to rebuild his life following his wife’s death<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The woman, who appeared to be in her 30s, was wearing an elegant red dress and sunglasses<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The pair share a joke as they walked along the River Thames near Barnes<\/p>\n

She was known for her frankness about dealing with her aggressive bowel cancer, which she shared on the BBC Radio 5 Live show You, Me And The Big C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She described Mr Bowen as a ‘very eligible bachelor’ and knew he would attract a lot of female attention after her death.<\/p>\n

She said: ‘I have given him strict instructions: I want him to move on. He’s a handsome man, I’m like, ‘Don’t be taken for a ride, don’t marry a bimbo, find someone else who can make you laugh like we did.’<\/p>\n

She also joked there were a couple of people she didn’t want him to hook up with and if he did, ‘I would do my damned hardest to haunt him’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Bowen works as a banker for private equity firm Pomona Capital. He met his wife, with whom he had\u00a0two children, in 2005 and they married three years later.<\/p>\n

In 2023, her mother Heather said: ‘Deborah will be a hard act to follow, but he has our blessing.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before she died at the age of just 40, cancer campaigner Dame Deborah James told her husband he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92,77,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-204079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114724755717750311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}