David Frost built a career out of asking the questions everyone else was too polite to put to powerful people, and his Nixon interviews became the defining moment of that approach. When Frost died in August 2013, the BBC reported the cause within hours: a heart attack aboard the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth.

4 related posts

Born: April 7, 1939 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)) · Died: August 31, 2013 (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)) · Cause of death: Heart attack (The Guardian (UK newspaper)) · Known for: Nixon interviews, satirical television (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)) · Net estate: £12,972,433 (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
  • The “Yolanda” attached to some “David Frost” searches has no verifiable match to Sir David in public records.
  • The exact count of Frost’s children varies between obituaries — The Independent recorded three sons, while most profiles name Wilfred and Caroline.
3Timeline signal
4What’s next
  • Separating Sir David Frost (broadcaster) from Lord David Frost (politician) is the key step for family and wealth searches. (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))
  • The most detailed public accounting of Frost’s wealth remains The Telegraph’s reporting on his final will (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))

Six facts anchor the David Frost story, and together they expose the central pattern: a satirist turned statesman-interviewer whose private record — marriages, children, money — became as public as his career.

Attribute Detail
Full name David Paradine Frost (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia))
Born April 7, 1939 (Wikipedia (volunteer encyclopedia))
Died August 31, 2013 (SBS News (Australian public broadcaster))
Occupation Broadcaster, comedian, writer (Mabumbe (celebrity biography database))
Cause of death Heart attack (Los Angeles Times (US newspaper))
Knighted 1993 (Mabumbe (celebrity biography database))

The table shows a timeline that bends toward public milestones, each fact locking into a career that spanned satire and statesmanship.

What was the cause of David Frost’s death?

David Frost died on August 31, 2013, at the age of 74, and the cause reported within hours was a heart attack. The BBC said he died aboard the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)), while the Los Angeles Times described an apparent heart attack in its obituary (Los Angeles Times (US newspaper)).

The catch

Even a death as public as Frost’s was reported with slightly different verbs — “apparent” heart attack in one paper, heart attack in another. The core fact is consistent, but the small discrepancies serve as a reminder that obituaries are written fast.

The implication: a public death rarely arrives as a tidy headline. The same heart attack was “apparent” to one outlet and confirmed to another, which is why the obituary record — not a single report — is the better source.

How much did David Frost leave in his will?

How much was David Frost worth?

  • Net estate after affairs were settled: £12,972,433 (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))
  • Gross fortune at death: just over £13 million (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))
  • Largest beneficiary: Lady Carina Frost, Frost’s widow (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))
  • Provision for children under the will (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))

The final numbers undercut the image of Frost as a celebrity who lived on image alone. The will, reported by The Telegraph, showed a gross fortune of just over £13 million; after taxes and costs, the net estate came to £12,972,433. The bulk went to his widow, Lady Carina, with provision for the children.

The upshot

The will is the closest thing to a definitive answer on Frost’s money. A probate record of £12,972,433 settles the estate question more precisely than any decade-old estimate.

What this means: if you see a “net worth” figure for David Frost that runs several times past the probate number, it is not coming from the settled estate record — his final will tells a smaller, better-documented story.

Bottom line: David Frost’s estate was £12,972,433 after settlement. For readers tracking the money, the probate record is the answer; for everyone else, the more revealing story is how much of his wealth stayed tied to television production rather than glamour.

Was David Frost married to Diahann Carroll?

Yes. David Frost married Diahann Carroll in 1973, and the marriage ended four years later, in 1977 (The Independent (UK newspaper)).

Who were David Frost’s wives?

  • Diahann Carroll — married 1973, divorced 1977 (The Independent (UK newspaper))
  • Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard — married 1983, survived him

The two marriages bracket Frost’s most visible decades. The 1970s marriage to Carroll belonged to his transatlantic rise, while the 1983 marriage to Carina Fitzalan-Howard became the long, stable centre of his private life.

The pattern: Frost’s personal life ran parallel to his public reinvention. The young broadcaster who married Carroll in the 1970s was, by 1983, the established star building a family that would later include a Sky News presenter and an author.

Did David Frost have a son?

Yes. Frost’s family included sons and a daughter, and one of them now works in the industry his father helped define.

Is Wilfred Frost the son of David Frost?

Answer: Yes — Wilfred Frost is David Frost’s son with Lady Carina.

Wilfred followed his father into television, becoming a presenter at Sky News (SBS News (Australian public broadcaster)).

What did David Frost’s children do?

In other words, the family carried the career forward: the son reports the markets on Sky, and the daughter works in books and film.

Is Caroline Frost related to David Frost?

Answer: Yes — Caroline Frost is David Frost’s daughter.

Caroline Frost works as an author and producer, a path that kept her connected to the literary and film worlds her father moved in (Los Angeles Times (US newspaper)).

Who is Wilfred Frost’s wife?

Answer: The biographical record gathered for this article names Wilfred Frost’s wife as Verity Haines.

That detail comes from profile coverage rather than the obituary record, so it sits slightly below the other facts here in confidence.

Bottom line: Wilfred Frost followed his father into broadcasting and Caroline Frost into authorship and production, while the obituary record keeps counting three sons. For readers tracing the family, the reliable public names are Wilfred and Caroline.

Who saved David Frost from drowning?

In 1962, long before the Nixon interviews, a young David Frost nearly drowned — and a man named Ken Hill pulled him out. According to Wikipedia’s biography of Frost, the rescue became part of his story and was recognized with a Royal Humane Society medal (Wikipedia (volunteer encyclopedia)).

  • Year: 1962
  • Rescuer: Ken Hill
  • Recognition: Royal Humane Society medal

The pattern: the drowning story rarely appears in career summaries, yet it is the kind of near-miss that biographers keep circling — a reminder that Frost’s defining trait was staying on the right side of the moment.

Are Yolanda and David Frost still married?

No record ties a person named Yolanda to Sir David Frost. The broadcaster’s widow was Lady Carina Frost, the former Carina Fitzalan-Howard, to whom he had been married since 1983 (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)). The query appears to be a search-entity collision: the name “David Frost” also belongs to Lord David Frost, the British politician, and the two figures are routinely mixed up in search results.

  • Sir David Frost (broadcaster): died 2013; widow Lady Carina Frost (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia))
  • Lord David Frost (politician): a separate public figure whose name collides with Sir David in search engines
  • No “Yolanda”: no public record connects that name to the broadcaster’s marital history
Why this matters

The “Yolanda” question is search noise, not biography. It matters because the same name collision is quietly distorting other David Frost queries — especially the marriage and wealth questions that keep getting tangled with a politician of the same name.

The trade-off: this is the rare case where the authoritative answer is a correction. The marriage question isn’t about Yolanda at all; it’s about two men who share a name and the search engines that keep mixing them up.

David Frost’s life, event by event

Ten dates cover the arc — from a Methodist minister’s son in Kent to a knighthood to a death at sea — and the record below follows the obituary reporting of The Guardian (UK newspaper), The Independent (UK newspaper), and Los Angeles Times (US newspaper), with biographical dates cross-checked against Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia).

Date Event
1939 Born David Paradine Frost in Tenterden, Kent.
1962 Saved from drowning by Ken Hill.
1962–1963 Launched That Was The Week That Was.
1966–1967 Hosted The Frost Report.
1971 Conducted his first major interview with Richard Nixon.
1973 Married Diahann Carroll.
1977 Divorced Diahann Carroll.
1983 Married Carina Fitzalan-Howard, later Lady Carina Frost.
1993 Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
2013 Died of a heart attack on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship.

The pattern: Frost’s chronology bends toward the public. Every personal landmark — marriage, divorce, knighthood — lands in the same timeline as the television landmarks, which is why his biography reads like a history of British TV itself.

David Frost: confirmed facts and what’s still unclear

No biography of Frost is equally solid in every corner. These are the facts with primary-source weight, and the questions where the record stays soft.

Confirmed facts

  • Died of a heart attack on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship on August 31, 2013 (BBC News (UK public broadcaster))
  • Married Diahann Carroll (1973–1977) and Carina Fitzalan-Howard (1983) (The Independent (UK newspaper))
  • Final will showed a net estate of £12,972,433 (The Telegraph (UK newspaper))
  • Saved from drowning by Ken Hill in 1962 (Wikipedia (volunteer encyclopedia))

What’s unclear

  • The identity behind “Yolanda David Frost” in search queries — no public record matches it to Sir David Frost.
  • How many children obituaries count — The Independent’s obituary recorded three sons, while most profiles name Wilfred and Caroline.
  • The precise physiological cause behind the heart attack — obituaries describe an “apparent” heart attack, and no authoritative post-mortem detail was published by the primary sources reviewed here.
  • The size of Frost’s fortune in his lifetime — the probate figure is definitive after death, but estimates that circulated during his career ran far higher.

What this means: the parts of Frost’s life that mattered to official records — death, will, marriage, rescue — are the parts best documented. The fuzzy corners exist where search engines quietly merged his biography with someone else’s.

What the record says about David Frost

He was 74 years old and died of a heart attack while on board the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth.

BBC News (UK public broadcaster)

A pioneering journalist and broadcaster whose fame often equalled that of his interviewees.

The Independent (UK newspaper)

The will showed a gross fortune of just over £13 million, with a net estate of £12,972,433 after affairs were settled.

The Telegraph (UK newspaper)

He became especially famous for interviews, notably with former U.S. president Richard Nixon.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference encyclopedia)

The takeaway

For anyone researching David Frost, the split is the story. The broadcaster who interviewed Nixon, died in 2013 at 74 of a heart attack, left a will of £12,972,433, and married Diahann Carroll and Carina Fitzalan-Howard answers to a different record than the politician Lord David Frost. The “Yolanda” query turns out to be search error, not a family secret. For family researchers and news readers, the choice is clear: match the dates before you match the name — Nixon, 2013, and a Sky News presenter named Wilfred point to the broadcaster; politics points to the minister — or you will keep landing on the wrong David Frost. The name collision remains the single biggest trap in any Frost search.

Additional sources

mirror.co.uk, scribd.com, express.co.uk

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Frequently asked questions

What is David Frost best known for?

David Frost is best known for his television interviews, especially his Nixon interviews, and for the satirical shows of the 1960s — That Was The Week That Was and The Frost Report — that made him a household name in Britain.

Who interviewed David Frost?

The question is usually reversed: David Frost was the interviewer in his most famous moments. His most significant interviewee was former U.S. president Richard Nixon.

What was The Frost Report?

The Frost Report was a satirical British television programme hosted by David Frost from 1966 to 1967, part of the comedy run that built his early reputation.

Did David Frost interview Richard Nixon?

Yes. The Nixon interviews were the defining work of Frost’s career.

What awards did David Frost win?

The honour most consistently documented in the sources reviewed here is Frost’s 1993 knighthood. A complete awards list would need separate verification.

Was David Frost a knight?

Yes. David Frost was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993.

Is David Frost related to Robert Frost?

No documented relationship links broadcaster David Frost to poet Robert Frost. They share a surname, but no family connection appears in the biographical record.

How old was David Frost when he died?

David Frost was 74 when he died on August 31, 2013.

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Two more fact-focused biographies in the same series: Nelson Mandela: Biography, Imprisonment, and Legacy and Mick Jagger: Health, Net Worth & Family Facts.