Robert Attenborough is the son, and he’s taken a path that’s surprisingly normal for the child of a legend. He works as a senior lecturer in bioanthropology at the Australian National University. I know—the word “bioanthropology” sounds like something you’d fail in college, but it basically means he studies human evolution and fossil records. So he’s a chip off the old block, just with more lab coats and fewer penguins.
He’s also married and has a daughter named Zoe, which makes David a grandfather. Imagine that: Sir David Attenborough, cooing over a baby while whispering, “And here we see the remarkable feeding behavior of the Homo sapiens infant…” Honestly, I would pay to see that video.
Fun fact: Robert actually appeared in one of David’s documentaries—First Life—as an on-screen expert. It’s the closest he’s come to starring in a blockbuster, and he mostly just walked around looking at rocks. Some legacies are best left to the narrator.