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Outlook: Love, loss and my unlikely romance with Oliver Sacks

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Bill Hayes Guard.jpg

09/10/2023 GMT

Love, loss and my unlikely romance with Oliver Sacks

BBC World Service - Outlook, Love, loss and my unlikely romance with Oliver Sacks

After losing his partner, Bill Hayes found love again with neurologist Oliver Sacks

After tragically losing his partner of 17 years, writer Bill Hayes moved to New York, where an unlikely romance with renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks blossomed.

After coming out at age 23, writer Bill Hayes moved to San Francisco to finally live his life as a liberated gay man. There, he fell in love for the first time with a man called Steve.  They spent happy years together but then one day, out of the blue, their 17 year relationship was dramatically cut short. 

After this monumental loss, Bill moved to New York where he met the renowned neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks.  They struck up a close - if unlikely - friendship and Bill was charmed by Oliver's eccentricity and kindness. It soon became clear there was a romantic spark between them, but would Sacks, at the age of 75, finally open up to the infinite possibilities of love?

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar 
Producer: Charlie Towler and Laura Thomas

Bill has written a memoir of his time with Oliver and his life in New York, Insomniac City.

Audio taken from Oliver Sacks: His Own Life by Ric Burns

(Photo: Oliver Sacks (L), and Bill Hayes in 2015. Credit: Corbis)

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