Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Injured Stephen Hawking defends wife

|
|
 
  
Published: Jan. 24, 2004 at 10:03 AM

CAMBRIDGE, England, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Physicist Stephen Hawking has defended his wife amid speculation the renowned British scientist had been repeatedly assaulted in his own home.

In a defiant statement issued Friday by Hawking from his bed at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, the physicist described reports that he had been attacked as "completely false" and said he owed his life to his wife, Elaine, the Telegraph reported Saturday.

"I firmly and wholeheartedly reject the allegations that I have been assaulted," said Hawking, who has motor neuron disease. "The stories in the media are completely false and I am profoundly disappointed by the circulation of such personal and inaccurate information.

"My wife and I love each other very much and it is only because of her that I am alive today. I request that the media respect my privacy and allow me to focus on recovering from my illness."

It was the second statement that Hawking, 62, who has been in the hospital for the past month with a lung infection, had issued after police confirmed that they had opened an investigation into the alleged assaults.

Topics: Stephen Hawking
© 2004 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Amsterdam drops ban on drinking beer standing up. Drinking beer upside down still punishable offense...
Photoshop Theme: Mashup products from different centuries. Link goes to real product example
Okay, you've got to admit wildfires are pretty cool when you're looking at them from space
Barnes and Noble tell a 73-year-old patron that men can't be by themselves in the children's area,...
While the Chinese are fiddling with an outdated Russian aircraft carrier, the U.S. has something...
Trololo no mo