Live Aid host Andy Kershaw's troubled last years - from prison spells to island banishment
April 17, 2026
DJ Andy Kershaw passed away after a long brutal battle with cancer – but his later years were filled with a troubled past, which left him in and out of prison three times
Once a prominent voice on British airwaves and a presenter for the globally televised Live Aid concert, Andy Kershaw’s final years were a stark contrast to his celebrated career, marked by personal turmoil, prison sentences, and a de facto banishment from his island home. The broadcaster, who passed away on April 16, 2026, at the age of 66, had a public life that was ultimately overshadowed by a series of legal and personal crises.
Kershaw's career began with a rapid ascent in the 1980s. After making a name for himself as a presenter on BBC's "The Old Grey Whistle Test," he became one of the faces of the BBC's Live Aid coverage in 1985. This role catapulted him to wider fame and coincided with the launch of his influential BBC Radio 1 show. For 15 years, he was a champion of world music, introducing genres and artists from across the globe to a mainstream British audience, a passion he continued on BBC Radio 3 from 2001. His work earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated following, establishing him as a successor to the legendary John Peel.
The turn in Kershaw's fortunes began after the breakdown of his 17-year relationship with Juliette Banner, the mother of his two children. The couple had moved to the Isle of Man, but after their separation, a series of incidents led to Banner taking out a restraining order against him. Kershaw's subsequent breaches of this order in 2007 and 2008 resulted in multiple court appearances and prison sentences, disrupting a career that had also included respected work as a journalist reporting from global conflict zones like Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
His legal troubles culminated in a six-month suspended sentence, which came with the condition that he leave the Isle of Man. A judge at the time described him as a "miserable and pathetic figure" and urged him to leave the island to get his life in order, an episode widely reported as a form of banishment. These years were also marked by public struggles with alcohol and periods of homelessness, a chaotic chapter that stood in stark opposition to his earlier professional success.
Though he eventually returned to broadcasting, including a show on BBC Radio 3 in 2010 and a later podcast, his career never fully recovered its previous momentum. In early 2026, it was revealed he was undergoing treatment for cancer. His death in April 2026 closed a life of considerable highs and profound lows, leaving behind a complex legacy of a gifted broadcaster whose final years were defined by a painful and very public downfall.
Source: dailystar