The husband of the late Dame Deborah James appears to have found love following the cancer campaigner’s death with a Swiss investment banker.
Over the weekend, three years after the death of Bowel Babe Deborah, Sebastien Bowen was seen holding hands with a mystery brunette. She has now been named as 39-year-old Susann Aulbach.
Ahead of her death at the age of 40 in June 2022, selfless Deborah told Sebastien that she wanted him to move on and find love after her death. And it appears the father of two has done just that…
Dame Deborah James’ husband ‘moves on’
Sebastien was pictured holding hands and walking arm-in-arm with Susann as they enjoyed a lunch date at the River Cafe in London’s Hammersmith. It’s thought the pair were celebrating Susann’s birthday.
One passerby told the Mail: “They looked like they were very much in love. 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.”
Body language expert Judi James also offered her opinion on the couple’s romance. Speaking to The Mirror, she claimed the pair “appear lacking in any signs of tension or anxiety”. She added that it suggests “they make each other happy”.
Judi added: “There’s no clinging or neediness here: the hand clasp shows the fingers are meshed, but the clasp itself is relaxed and quite loose. Their smiles have an element of coyness. But they are twinned smiles and appear authentic rather than the kind of social, more effortful smiles you often see when people are trying to impress each other on a first date.
“Their body language looks synchronised too, with lots of mirroring to suggest like-minded thinking. This looks like a very even-handed relationships in terms of emotions, intellect and levels of confidence. This suggests strong friendship might have been established before anything more romantic.”
‘I want him to move on’
Late last year it was reported that Sebastien – who shared son Hugo, 17, and daughter Eloise, 15, with Deborah – was dipping his toe back in the dating scene.
Find someone else who can make you laugh like we did.
Speaking in the months before her death on You, Me And The Big C podcast, Dame Deborah 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.'”
She also joked that there were a couple of people she didn’t want him to hook up with. And, if he did, she promised to do her “damned hardest to haunt him”.
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‘He has our blessing’
In 2023, Dame Deborah’s mother Heather gave Sebastien her “blessing” to move on with his life. She shared: “Deborah will be a hard act to follow. But he has our blessing.”
Read more: Dame Deborah James’ husband on deathbed promise to cancer campaigner wife
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